Siren Call
by Eilike
Summary: The wedding ceremony of Sebastian's cousin Charlie and his human fiancée Josy ends up in desaster, and Sebastian and Ciel wake up in a strange place, knowing but one thing: They have a contract. They can't quite imagine why, or remember the terms. And people around them are just too hospitable to be true...
1. A Wedding Spoiled

Hi, there. A new story with lots of new, weird challenges coming up... This story (or rather: single images and scenes and pieces of dialogue) has been on my mind for a real long time. It's featuring Sebastian's cousin Charlie and his girlfriend Josy, whom I introduced in my first "Kuroshitsuji"-fanfic. But this is *not* a sequel. You don't need to have read "Chains of Command" to follow this story and (hopefully) enjoy it. All I'm saying is that if you've already met and liked them, you'll probably enjoy "Siren Call", too. If you didn't like them - well, it's only fair to let you know: They are going to have _a lot_ to say.

After all, they're about to get married.

Let's not keep them waiting.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

* * *

+++Chapter 1: A Wedding Spoiled +++

On a clear, sunny morning in spring, Ciel Phantomhive and his butler went through the earl's mail. The procedure was always the same: Sebastian announced the sender and delivered a summary of the letter's contents. Whereupon Ciel decided whether the reply must be composed by himself or could be delegated to his butler. It was dull business that Ciel tried to get over with as quickly as possible.

"Lord Barton asks for a convenient time to receive a group of orphans at Phantomhive manor," said Sebastian.

"Again?" Listlessly, Ciel poked his spoon into his dessert, crème caramel with coconut-orange compote. "Wasn't it just yesterday that they came and consumed a year's supply of chocolate and cake?"

"It was around Christmas, young master." Sebastian snickered. "You hoped to bail out of the obligation to donate a day's production of toys for Christmas presents."

More poking. The crème became a mashed blob with the stewed fruit. "It didn't work, did it?"

"It grieves me to say so, but - no. It didn't work. You still had to send presents." Sebastian's eyes were on the earl's plate. The only thing that obviously grieved him was the sight of the maltreated dessert. "If the coconut-orange compote is not to mylord's liking - "

"Dessert's fine, Sebastian." Ciel put out his hand and accepted the letter, sighing. "What else?"

Sebastian looked at the next card, "An invitation to a charity concert."

"Charity, huh? Is Her Majesty involved in some way?"

Sebstian turned the envelope over, searching for some kind of clue. "No, young master."

"Send them my apologies. I am a busy man. I can make a donation, but I cannot be expected to waste my time. Sebastian? That was only between you and me. _Of course you don't answer them like that!_" Ciel's gaze bored into his butler's glinting eyes. Turning back to his dessert and shaking his head, he grumbled, "Demon."

"Beg your pardon," said his butler, smiling. "I thought mylord were dictating out of mylord's head."

"Stop being silky, and let's read the next – what?" Ciel watched his butler's expression change significantly, going from a smug smile to a look of wide-eyed surprise. "What is it?"

"It's an invitation." Sebastian turned the letter over and checked the back of the envelope. "Young master, it's for me." The demon, who'd never received any personal mail that Ciel could remember, seemed downright baffled.

"Well, who's it from?"

"My cousin."

"What, from Charlie?" Ciel craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the handwriting on the card. "Well, read it already! What does he write?"

Sebastian scanned the message, "It seems he's planning to get married. To Josy."

Ciel was silent for a moment. He remembered both, the nonchalant demon and his girlfriend, a rather practical, down-to-earth bar maid from the East End. Charlie had come to London some time ago and caused a lot of trouble, having let an ancient artefact fall into the wrong hands. As a result, a handful of would-be conjurers put a spell on Sebastian, even temporarily managing to turn the demon against his young master.

Charlie had been fair (and needing a distraction from his relationship problems) enough to protect Ciel, fight off Sebastian, and eventually help them break the spell. During their collaboration, he explained to Ciel that Sebastian and he were not blood relatives in the human sense of the word. But they considered themselves 'cousins', due to being of roughly the same age and having the same intents in their dealings with humans.

_Even though –_

"Charlie is about to make a contract?" asked Ciel. "He told me he'd never bound himself to a human. He seemed sort of proud of it."

"He didn't. Contract a human being," said Sebastian, recovering from the surprise. "And I'm pretty sure he wouldn't consider it now. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd rather expect we owe this invitation to Miss Josy getting her way."

"I didn't know your kind could go and take the Holy Vows of Matrimony?"

"Charlie's found a simple solution," said Sebastian, re-reading with more mental equilibrium. "The ceremony is going to take place on a ship. A ship's captain is entitled to marry a couple on his vessel. Since Charlie has recently joined the seafaring folks, he probably knows a captain or two who's willing to do him the favor. No church, no priest, no Holy Mass."

"Are you going?" asked Ciel.

There was a lost expression in Sebastian's eyes as he said, "I probably should. He's family."

"Sebastian? Do you think I could come, too?"

"I think... Charlie would appreciate it." Sebastian looked at the invitation. There at the bottom, written in neat handwriting like a spider's footprints, was an additional line. It read: "_And bring the cubby if he asks, which I am sure he'll do because he's an obnoxious brat. Tell him we'll have cake_."

* * *

Like most couples, Charlie and Josy wanted their wedding to be something very special, an occasion to remember. And they didn't want to be disturbed by passing ships, the dock police or, in Charlie's case, the tolling of one of London's hundreds of church bells.

Therefore they had decided to anchor their wedding ship off the coast of Canvey Island, east of London. As soon as Sebastian had accepted the invitation, Charlie sent another letter offering to provide transportation, "that big, ebony affair with the four black horses, you know what I'm talking about? Them animals that strike sparks as the travel at the speed of stormwind? _Somebody _owes me a favor, so - "

Sebastian had torn the letter before Ciel's eyes and burned the remains. ("You are not going anywhere near that carriage, if I can hinder it, mylord.")

On the appointed day, he gathered his young master up in his arms and set out to cover the distance in his own way. Holding his top hat with one hand, Ciel watched the landscape rush by. Five minutes later, they passed the dubious black carriage on the road. Seeing the ferocious horses that seemed to breathe fire at him, Ciel involontarily fastened his grip on his butler's shoulder.

"Young master?" said Sebastian beside his ear. No trace of effort, not even a hitch in the demon's breath. "You're tensing? Surely, mylord isn't scared?"

Ciel brought his lips close to the demon's ear. He knew he didn't have to. But the wind seemed so loud, it was only natural that he should shout to make himself heard, "I couldn't help thinking: If those pitch-black beasts race like clouds driven by the stormwind – how fast are we going, then? Thunder? Lightning?"

"Not nearly." Sebastian laughed softly. "This form is limited. And yours is even fragile."

"Don't let me keep you," said Ciel, a little cross.

"I do, lest you'd suffer considerable inconvenience." There was a farmstead in Sebastian's way, and he overcame the obstacle by leaping on the low stable, up on the crest, sliding down the far side of the roof, and finally using the kennel of the madly barking dog as a springboard to cover the fence. All that without missing a step or slowing down, while he explained, "It's not a matter of body size, but something about acceleration and gravitation that human bodies on the whole find difficult to endure."

"_Urgh!_" said Ciel. "Never mind. Just get us there, while I hold on to my breakfast."

* * *

They reached the coast line and proceeded to float over the glittering blue sea. Of course, Ciel knew that they didn't really float; that it was only Sebastian leaping out high and far. They had done it before. But it invariably felt like being carried by a big, black bird. A little ahead, Ciel saw the large sailing ship that was their destination. Down below, he made out the rowing boats that ferried the other guests over. The sailing ship's rigging rushed up to catch them. Sebastian used the shrouds to break his momentum. With only the tiniest scraping sound of his heels, he landed right behind the bride. A couple of guests gasped.

Josy, however, didn't seem in the least surprised that someone should drop straight from the mast. She merely smiled and turned to see who it was. She wore a shoulderfree, off-white dress with lots of frills. Her blond hair was pinned up and adorned with a comb of finest mother-of-pearl. A wreath of flowers completed her outfit on her day of honor. "Earl Phantomhive. Sebastian. I'm so glad you could come."

"Hello, Josy," said Ciel, putting his feet on the deck, and, "Good day, Miss Josy," said his butler. And then, a little more affectionate, "Well, _hello-oh!_"

Astonished, Ciel turned just in time to catch his butler in the act of staring openly at the bride. More to the point: Sebastian's gaze kept alternating rather indiscreetly between her upper endowments and her tiny waist. It was the kind of look a bar-maid often got and usually knew how to counter. But coming from her fiancée's cousin, Josy returned it with a thin-lipped, nervous smile.

Ciel jabbed the demon in the ribs. "Hey! Don't gape at her like that."

"I can't blame him," said a voice from behind. "It's obvious that she's the most beautiful female your species has ever come forth with."

Ciel turned to find that the bridegroom had come over to meet them. Come over, or materialized. For Charlie, it was one and the same. He was a handbreadth taller than Sebastian and wore his wavy brown hair in a ponytail. He was dressed like a sailor, if an old-fashioned and romantically overdrawn sailor. A privateer from the movies, but with a few extra brush strokes: As Josy had learned about and accepted her lover's true nature, Charlie no longer saw a point in concealing his black nails, his sharp canines or reddish eyes. Not in the melting pot of the East End where stranger things were everyday business. He wore his demonic attributes as if it was the most normal thing in the world, to the result that most people had come to view them in this way.

Besides, he also had this special charisma that seemed to pat everyone's shoulder and say, _well, human, of course I could be out to get you, and you wouldn't stand a chance. But I'm not, so why don't we get along and share a drink? Or two? I know just the right place...happy hours, no questions. _

Charlie was a demon with a special gift at socializing.

He seemed not in the mood to apply it now.

"Hi, Charlie," said Ciel.

"Hi, cubby. Nice to meet you, cousin." There was pure ice in Charlie's tone. He put his hand possessively around Josy's shoulder. Sebastian actually took a step backward.

"Back off another step, and it's okay," Charlie told him. Josy gave her fiancée a puzzled look.

"Hey, hey," Ciel threw up his hands. "No need to go through the roof! Sebastian wasn't touching her or anything - "

The two demons looked at him, equally amazed.

"Why would he touch her?" asked Charlie, and, "Charlie is just a little nervous," said Sebastian.

Charlie turned to him, sounding a little plaintive, "No, I'm not. I'm going to be - "

"Yes, you are," nodded Sebastian mildly. "Shut up."

"Well, if you'll excuse me," said Josy, trying to clear the situation. "There's another friend of mine boarding and - " She started forward, then stopped. "Charlie?! Could you let me go, please, love?"

"Er... sorry." Charlie pulled back his hand. Rubbing the red clawmarks on her shoulder, Josy left to greet a human couple who had just climbed over the ship's rail. The demons looked after her, attentively watching her every move.

"You hurt her," observed Sebastian.

"I didn't mean to," said Charlie.

"I think I'm going to hurt you _very badly_, Charlie," promised Sebastian mildly.

"Whatever. Later. Just don't stare at her that way again." Charlie took a deep breath, then he turned to Ciel, "Sorry for the curious welcome, cubby. I guess I am just a bit antsy, after all."

"It's okay." Ciel had spotted the cake and was beginning to sidle off. "I understand."

"No," said Charlie. "You don't."

Ciel looked up, offended, "Just because I'm only thirteen - "

"Yes, yes, and don't you wish you were fourteen already?" Charlie ran his fingers through his hair. "But seriously, Sebastian. I don't know if I can handle this."

"You're neither the first nor the last," said Sebastian, rather unsympathetic.

"But I've never made a pact before," complained Charlie.

"Don't worry." Sebastian shrugged. "This one is for beginners. Just say 'I do', when you're asked to."

"I'm so excited. I won't hear the question."

"Well, you're a demon after all." Sebastian's eyes followed his master: Ciel was heading straight for the cake. "Chances are you'll know the right moment by instinct. Now, if you'll excuse me? I have to serve my master some cake."

Charlie looked doubtful. "Say, is it fun? This butler thing? I mean, you've been pulling it off for – how long? Three centuries? Four? Feels like... "

"It's been hardly three years," corrected Sebastian, "and it's not about fun. The young master and I, we have a contract."

Charlie looked puzzled. "Why does one make a contract, if it's not about fun?" he asked.

"Get married," Sebastian advised him and hurried after Ciel.

* * *

One hour later, the captain ordered the ship's bell to be sounded. The guests took their seats, and the wedding ceremony started. Ciel felt relieved as he was finally able to slide into the row of benches. He felt he did not really belong among the assembled crowd, the sailors, day laborers, dock workers and bar maids.

He had hoped to encounter other demons, just to see what they were like and maybe catch a glimpse of his butler's background and past. But Sebastian kept telling him that there were no other supernaturals present.

"Try looking at it this way," the demon said, as he took his seat beside his master. "Since Charlie is obviously reluctant to present his bride to others of our kind, it is an unique honor for me - and subsequently for you - to be here in the first place."

"An honor? Maybe. But something about it just doesn't feel right," said Ciel. "Can't you tell?"

Sebastian surveyed the crowd. "I've come to consider it the normal surge of paranoia when being in my cousin's presence."

"Is it usually founded?"

"There's no such thing as 'usual' in dealing with Charlie." Sebastian's gaze flickered to the makeshift altair where the bridal couple stood side by side, facing away from the audience.

The captain cleared his throat and started to recite the opening lines of the ceremony. He talked about a sailor's love for the blue sky and the deep sea, for his ship and the starry nights when he held lonely vigil at the steering wheel, guiding her through the sleeping waves... He went on, drawing a line to love and two people's decision to set sail together, weathering the storms of life...

Charlie ceased listening before long. He was ready to grant that the sky was blue and the sea deep. But more importantly, there was a party coming up, and champagne enough to last far into the night, be it starry or not. Casting a longing glance at their supplies, Charlie noticed a movement: A tentacle had noiselessly slid over the rail. It was white like the belly of a dead fish, and the suckers had a rosy hue. Like a snake or an elephant's trunk it danced and curled over the cake. Eventually, it chose a chocolate muffin and, rippling happily over and around the sweet, pulled back.

"Uh-oh," mumbled Charlie. More tentacles appeared and abducted the wedding cake. A noise from above caused Charlie to look up into the rigging, where a flock of seagulls had settled.

_"UH-OH!"_

"What is it, Charlie?" His bride gave him a puzzled look.

"Josy, love, I'm sorry," he told her. He seized her, lifted her up, carried her over to the rail and dropped her into the sea.

"Don't worry," he called after her, wondering if she heard him over her own shrieking. "I'm the one they're out for."

* * *

At Charlie's unexpected action, a collective rustle and gasp ran through the guests. Some men – and even one or two women, those people weren't too prim and proper – moved as if to dash forward.

None of them got very far.

"What's he doing?" Ciel asked, amazed. "Sebastian? Why did he toss her overboard?"

He stopped, only now noticing the giant squid that was trying to get on deck. There were tentacles everywhere. They weaved up the masts, they swished and slithered across the deck. The ship's structure moaned. People all around were panicking, running for their lives and jumping overboard.

"But that's Ramón!" Sebastian stepped forward, right into the moving mass of tentacles. He touched his gloved hands to one of them. "Young master, you asked whether there was another demon attending. Well, here is one: Ramón is one of the Beasts of the Last of Days. He's foretold to terrorize the North European coastal line, when The End Is Near." He looked over his shoulder to his cousin. "Didn't you state that you accidentially got him eaten by a sperm whale when you were treasure diving?"

"I thought I did," replied Charlie. "Hi, Ramón. So you survived? That's nice. How's the terrorizing?" He put out his hand, trying to follow Sebastian's lead and pat the monster. The tentacle wrapped around him and without fuss, started to break his ribs. The demon gasped. "Still bearing a – oof – grudge, are you?"

"Er," said Ciel, when Charlie was swept off his feet and waved about wildly. "Sebastian? Aren't you going to - I don't know - help? Or something?"

"Do you order me to intervene, young master?"

"No, I just thought – with him being family and all?" Ciel dodged Charlie's legs as the demon was swept past, and added, "_Your_ family."

"Which makes him a vicious beast before anything else." Sebastian gave his cousin's plight the briefest of looks. "He'll live."

"Yes, but why is he holding his hands to his ears?" Amazed, Ciel watched Charlie's strange demeanor. Yes. He, too, heard a curious noise, almost like a human voice. It seemed very high-pitched, barely audible, Ciel's eyes moved to the birds in the rigging. "Are they making this strange noise? It's giving me a headache. Sebastian?"

"I'm sorry, master."

Ciel turned just in time to brace himself for Sebastian's hands grabbing him, lifting him and tossing him overboard.

_Well, I really could've seen this coming, couldn't I? _Ciel thought. He caught an impression of a white, amorphic mass below that floated like a huge inflatable dinghy and sprouted all these terrible arms. It had eyes, though, glowing red orbs of the size of saucers. Josy had saved herself on to its back, and she gave a shriek and scurried out of Ciel's way.

Impact was harder than Ciel had expected. Of course. Even squids had something to stabilize their backs. It was called 'cuttle bone'. The irrelevant information flashed into his mind and got mixed up with Josy's excited cry that he was bleeding.

From above he heard Charlie's voice, shouting, "Josy? Take care of the cubby!"

And Josy, screaming back, "Charlie? There's _blood_ coming out of his damned _ears_!" Her voice was shrill and angry. "_Charlie!_ I'm wet, I'm scared, I'm you fiancée! Get down here this instant!"

"Be right there. Just a sec."

"Gosh, Josy, you've got to contract him already," mumbled Ciel. "Demons acting on their own free will are no good to anybody except, maybe, themselves."

Then he passed out.

* * *

Aboard the ship, Charlie let his demonic powers surge and relocated out of Ramón's hold. "Alright, fun's over," he informed the monster as he materialized on deck, and, "Ramón, stop," echoed Sebastian. Charlie hated to admit it, but it seemed his cousin's order rather than his own that truly stayed the squid's attack.

Sebastian was on his knees beside the rail where he had dumped his master. Charlie went to kneel beside him and clutched him by the shoulders. He could taste the blood on his own tongue, so he was prepared for the sight when Sebastian looked up. There was blood trickling from Sebastian's nose and ears, and even his eyes seemed affected.

"Demon huddle, come on." Charlie offered support which his cousin accepted. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" asked Sebastian, leaning on Charlie's arms. "I can hardly hear my own thoughts." He stopped. "_You look terrible!_"

"I guess I do." Charlie touched his finger to the blood under his nose, "But I'll return that compliment."

Sebastian moved as if to look over the rail, "Mylord - "

"Relax. He's safe. He's with Josy."

"Charlie? What is that noise? That terrible singing?"

"They're sirens." Charlie nodded at the flock of eight seagulls in the rigging. "Not much we can do, actually. Their voices can kill. Er. That look -?"

"I didn't seriously expect to get an answer to my question," said Sebastian. "But I should've guessed you had one." He looked up at the birds. Only three of them were singing, and those that paused stared back at him with intelligent, knowing eyes. "What do they want?"

"Er, this is a little embarrassing," said Charlie. "But you see, these ladies' mistress and I, we were more than just good friends. Once. Some time ago. Well, actually not _that_ long ago. I knew she was of the jealous type. But I honestly didn't expect her to send in her servants to ruin my wedding."

"Charlie," Sebastian said, as sensibly as it was possible for him and under the circumstances. "Why did you bring me here?"

Charlie answered just as plainly, "Because I hoped you'd know what to do."

Sebastian let go of Charlie's arms and stared at his cousin. Every three seconds or so, he blinked in a very slow, controlled way.

Charlie said urgently, "Come on, you know you've always been the resourceful one... the one with an ace up your sleeve... and I'm going to be married."

Suddenly, Sebastian held silver knives between his right fingers.

Charlie squinted at the sight of the shining metal, "That's an awesome bunch of aces and a pretty literal way of keeping them up one's - "

"You," said Sebastian slowly, "knew this would happen. And yet you made me and the young master come here. No, not 'and yet'. You did it _because_ you knew this would happen."

"No. Yes. _Maybe._ Listen, you wouldn't kill a bridegroom on his wedding day?" Charlie ducked as his cousin flung the blades. But Sebastian had not aimed at him. To the noise of Charlie's shocked cry, "_Are you nuts?!_", the knives cut though the air and hit the singing seagulls square in the chest. Shrieking, the birds toppled to the ground. The effect was remarkable: As one bird, the survivors broke into song. Sebastian gasped. Blood burst from his nose. The second handful of knives clattered harmlessly on to the planks, as he groped for the something to hold on.

"_Oh, crap_," breathed Charlie, feeling his ear drums go 'pop' like air bubbles on the surf. He watched Sebastian struggle against the onslaught of the siren's voices until his cousin's eyes slid back in his head, and he sank to the deck. Charlie sensibly assumed that Sebastian had already passed out by the time his head touched the planks.

He also assumed that he was doing the same, because he could see the rail slide past, then the sky overhead, a few twinkling stars that could not really be there.

Ramón's tentacles moving in.

And then – nothing.

+++End of Chapter 1+++


	2. Memories, Lost

Hi, everyone. I'm glad you're here, ready to start reading. This story doesn't seem to attract many reviews. I wonder if there's anyone out there enjoying it - or is everyone just clicking on and dropping it at the next paragraph? Please, let me know - my motivation sort of depends on your feedback :)

(I am aware that Sebastian is not quite himself in this chapter. But then, he is not meant to be a butler right now. He's a creature that would stand in front of a caged boy and smile and feel that nothing could ever shake his control of this or any situation... We all have an idea of Sebastian's character in his pure demon form, I guess. I hope, my interpretation meets yours to an extent that allows you to enjoy the story and refrain from flaming me. :) )

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

* * *

+++Chapter 2: Memories, Lost+++

Ciel rubbed his eyes with his fists and yawned. A new day had broken. Hopefully, it was a sunny one. Nice weather to play with Lizzy and Sebastian in the garden. Lots of cupcakes served by Tanaka on the balcony. Fun, and laughter, and his father finishing work early so they could - He opened his eyes.

And recoiled.

He was lying on a bed that wasn't his. He was in a room that wasn't in his father's house.

And there was someone lying on the bed beside him.

Very close beside him, watching him wake up. The man had black hair and glinting red eyes with slitted pupils. He was dressed in black, head to toe, and with his feet clad in high-heeled boots. He lay on his side, supporting his head casually with his right hand.

"Er," said Ciel. "Where – who - ?"

Seeing Ciel awake, the man stopped his movement of extending his left hand towards the boy's face.

"English your native tongue?" he asked. His voice sounded strangely hollow as if coming from great depths.

Ciel nodded, trying to remember why this grotesque figure looked so familiar.

"Fine by us,_"_ said the demon, but his eyes darted up to look at someone behind Ciel.

"You're such a goof ball," said a voice in Ciel's back, "Stop scaring the human."

Guided by the direction of the demon's gaze, Ciel turned. He found a rather tall man with slicked-back brown hair who was just crossing the empty space between the door and the bed. He was carrying a big cardboard box. His glowing red eyes and toothy grin revealed him as another demon. A demon in white socks, flared black pants and a black leather jacket that he wore over some kind of collarless, pink shirt.

Ninety years, and this outfit would rock the dancefloor of any discotheque between Berlin and L.A. But this was 1889, and Ciel, who'd never seen anything remotely like 'Saturday Night Fever', stared in amazement.

"I'm not scared," was all he could think of saying.

"You'd damn better not." The demon put his box down at the foot of the bed. He winked at Ciel and nodded his head in the other demon's direction. "Don't be his prey any more than you already are."

"His pre- _hey?!_" The moment Ciel turned back to the demon on his bed, the black-nailed hand clamped on his face. More precisely, it shot forward to cover his right eye. Not thinking twice, Ciel slapped at it. "Back off! _Off!_ Don't touch me so easily!" Trembling with anger, Ciel watched as the hand was withdrawn. His physical outburst had pushed back the long black sleeve, revealing a strange mark. The sight sent a little spark of recognition zinging through his brain. It left a word. A name.

Ciel ventured to try it out: "Se- _Sebastian_?"

The black-haired demon, who was adjusting his sleeve, looked up. Even the expression of wide-eyed surprise on his face was familiar.

"My, my," said the demon in front of the bed cheerfully. "A name. That's something to work with, isn't it?"

"Charlie? That you?," asked a sleepy female voice. Ciel had not noticed the other bed and the woman who sat up on it. She wore a shoulderfree dress that had once been white and frilly. Now, it looked bedraggled, and her hair hung in unkempt tendrils around her face. There seemed nothing supernatural about her. She looked just like a mortal girl who'd been abducted from her own wedding party. The brown-haired demon was already beside her, putting a protective arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head against his chest. "Charlie, where are we? How did we get here?"

'Charlie' caressed her hair, kissing the matted strands and whispering that it didn't matter as long as they were together.

Ciel stared at them. The demon next to him sat up and slid his legs over the edge of the bed. Sitting there and looking at his dangling stiletto-heeled boots, he gave the impression of thinking about how to get up and stand on those things. He moved his hand over his eyes, looking strangely tired.

"Are you all right?" asked Ciel.

"No, but I'll improve." The demon glanced at Ciel. "You?"

"I'm okay," said Ciel bravely and moved to sit beside the demon. "Confused, but okay."

"You? You say you're confused?" Again, the demon rubbed his forehead. "Let's see. What year is this?"

"Eighteen-eighty-six," prompted Ciel.

"Eighteen-twelve," said the demon and gave Ciel a mean look from the corner of his eyes. "Why do I suddenly feel like my problem exceeds yours by seventy-four years?"

Ciel could see that this wasn't going to be easy. But he was still determined to try. After all, they seemed caught in the same fix.

"My name's Ciel," he offered and frowned as a shadow of memory slipped into his mind. "No. I mean, yes, it is. But actually, I'm Earl Phantomhive. And I am myself and - " He raised his hand to his right eye. "I seem to remember you putting your mark on my body."

"I did. That's what I checked when you remembered the name you gave me." The demon touched his left heel to the floor. _Click-click._

"I?" Ciel blurted out. "I decided to call you Sebastian?"

"No one else would have the right to name me." The demon eyed him suspiciously. "Something wrong?"

"No. Nothing." Ciel tried hard not to blush. "I like that name. Really. I do."

The demon gave Ciel a sidelong glance, then resumed making clicking sounds with his heel.

"So, we do have a contract," he said. "This is more than just a little embarrassing, but - do you happen to remember the terms?"

"Not exactly," said Ciel.

_Slam! _The demon's heel struck a spark. "But vaguely?" he asked lively.

Ciel shrugged. "Well, I sort of remember you living in my household. Being around me a lot."

"Visibly or invisibly?"

"Visibly, I guess. I'm eleven. I'm too old to entertain the idea of a secret friend."

"But still a child," Sebastian pointed out and ignored the dark look on Ciel's face. "What did your parents say to our alliance?"

"My parents are dead. They were murdered," said Ciel. The memory came all too easily, when everything else seemed blurred and not like his own memories at all.

"Murdered by me?" asked Sebastian. No emotion. Just gathering facts.

"I don't believe so," said Ciel, equally detached. "I think they were killed before you and I met. – Say, can you two maybe slobber over each other a little less obtrusively? We're thinking over he-" Turning to look at the couple, he blushed: Charlie and the girl were past kissing lips and whispering little words of affection. They had moved on, moved deeper, past skirts and fancy shirts and were doing ... other things to convince themselves of each other's intactness.

A cool, curiously smooth hand slid over Ciel's eyes and blocked his view.

"I said _don't touch me_!" Ciel squirmed out of the demon's grip and glowered at him. "What are you doing anyway? You're not my father!"

"Maybe I acted like I was?" Sebastian suggested coolly. "Maybe that was our deal? When your father was murdered, I took his place so that no-one would notice him dead and gone?"

"My father had a job to do. A job of highest import to the country and Her Majes- " Ciel stopped. Sebastian probably used to know about the Queen's watchdog thing. But he definitely didn't know now, and Ciel wanted to be damned, if he told him first thing of all. "Well, it was a dangerous job," he concluded, raising his shoulders.

"I can do it," said the demon, unfazed, imitating Ciel's shrug with an air of unparalleled arrogance. "And so much better than your old man. Humans are ineffective creatures. Their bodies are weak, vulnerable and prone to failure." He saw Ciel's face and smirked. "No offense intended. Merely stating facts."

"My predecessor didn't wear...this." Ciel gave the demon a meaningful look. "The style, the fabric, the – boots. No offense intended. Merely stating facts."

"I can wear whatever my master likes," said Sebastian smoothly. However, something in his voice suggested that for the time being, his master had better discover his faible for spandex fetishes.

"Besides, a son has to obey his father's word. I wouldn't take orders from you," objected Ciel.

Silently, Sebastian decided that he had liked Ciel a lot better when the boy looked at him with those huge, scared eyes. Aloud, he said, "You wouldn't need to obey me. We could make it look like you did, when it was in fact me following your commands."

Ciel realized that there was a twisted logic to the idea. "It would explain a lot," he said reluctantly, feeling like he was losing a significant piece of ground underneath his feet and unable to fathom the consequences. Why was he feeling like there was nothing but darkness beyond the things he could see...? Involontarily, he touched his thumb. "I guess you could catch a lot of bullets for me." Fingering his thumb, Ciel suddenly knew he was missing something there. A scar, maybe? A ring? Trying to think about it gave him a headache, so he dismissed the idea for later exploration.

"There's something you're not telling me." Sebastian narrowed his glinting eyes, wariness seeming one of the emotions they had been specifically designed to express. Ciel refused to be intimidated. He wondered when he had learned to return that stare or where the courage to do so came from. Sebastian held his gaze for some seconds, then he straightened up and shouted over Ciel's head, "_Charlie?_"

"Huh?" Charlie sat up. His girl jumped and pulled her skirts around herself. Sebastian pointed at Ciel with a flourish of his hand. "Meet Earl Phantomhive. His Christian name is Ciel, and his parents were murdered, but presumably not by me. He's inherited his title and a job from his father. He won't give me details now. But we figured out I probably assumed the role of his predecessor, as he wants his father to be known."

"I named this guy 'Sebastian' after my dog," Ciel said crossly. "His job is to catch some bullets for me. Which shouldn't be too much of a problem, if his skin is half as thick on his bones as his arrogance about the rest of him."

Sebastian's eyes silently added, _And he's a brat._

Charlie took in the message and grinned. "This is Josy," he said. "She's my fiancée. We were about to get married. I love her. And you have no business being near her. End of story. Let's get moving. Sebastian, the box on your bed! Put your paternal authority into practice and tell your contractee to put on his new outfit."

Sebastian immediately looked about and pulled the box over onto his lap.

"What is he?" growled Ciel. "Our boss?"

"No, he's my cousin." Having ripped open the box, Sebastian reached inside. "Seems like we spent enough time together to ingrain that fact into our brains. As to you - " He held up a shirt with puffed sleeves and a brocade vest featuring oriental ornaments that had been done in gold thread. "He's your personal style coach."

Ciel's mouth dropped open. "I'm not going to wear this," he said weakly.

"C'mon cubby, don't make things complicated for all of us." Charlie gallantly helped Josy to her feet. "The Lady Aglaia thinks it will suit you just perfectly."

"The Lady – who?" asked Josy.

Sebastian flopped back on the bed. "What have you gotten me into this time?" he moaned, exasperated.

"What do mean, 'gotten you'?" Charlie looked genuinely hurt. "I woke up in this room just like you. Just like all of us."

"So you say, but you were up and about an unknown time before me, and that's what's making me nervous."

"Charlie," said Josy. "Who's the Lady - "

"We'll meet her. Patience, love." Charlie steered his girl toward the door. Ciel and Sebastian exchanged glances.

"I see," said Ciel, "I take it the two of you spent enough time together to ingrain more into your brain than just the fact that he's your cousin? What else do you remember?"

Sebastian heaved a sigh. "An overpowering desire to messily murder him every now and then," he said and stood.

* * *

Just outside the door there waited a girl in a maid's dress. Her eyes were dark brown and moist like a doe's, and her full hair was white like a dove's wings. Curiously, the tips of her hair were black.

"Welcome to the island of the Lady Aglaia," she said. Her voice was gentle and resonant. "The mistress awaits you in the garden."

"An island?" muttered Ciel. "What am I doing on an island?"

"What are we doing here anyway?" asked Sebastian.

But they followed the maid through countless winding corridors of a palace that seemed carved from mother of pearl, marble and ivory. The place was almost purely white and richly decorated with murals, draperies and mosaics. They displayed nautic scenes mostly, underwater gardens filled with fish, whales, squids, shellfish, turtles, stingrays. Passing an open door, Ciel caught an impression of a room that was decorated with stuffed seabirds, and another made to look like a coral reef.

They came into the open, and there was a beautiful garden with statues and a fountain under a blue sky. People were gathered at the bowl of the fountain, young men and women who obviously listened to a girl reciting poetry. They looked curiously toward the newly arrived.

A woman got up and came to meet them. She was in her early thirties and a dazzling beauty. Large blue eyes and golden hair seemed too picturesque to be all true. She wore sandals and a flowing white tunic that Ciel seemed to have seen before – in his history book, the chapter about Ancient Rome.

"Welcome," she smiled. "Welcome to my island. I am the Lady Aglaia. Are you hungry? My servants will get you anything you want."

"Anything?" asked Sebastian, lurking.

"Anything," said Charlie, shrugging his shoulders. "Of course, special requests take some time to fulfill."

Sebastian flashed him a wary glance. "How do you know?"

"From experience," said the Lady Aglaia. "Charlie's been my guest before."

As she spoke, a maid followed her beckoning and equipped them with champagne flutes. Sebastian regarded the sparkling drink like someone realizing for the first time the dead worm at the bottom of the tequila bottle.

"Welcome back, Charlie," said Lady Aglaia, raising her glass. "We all knew you'd return. And now you've even brought your friends – and this beautiful Miss - ?"

"Josephine," said Josy with stiff dignity. "Josephine Margaret Sandler."

"Miss Sandler," said Lady Aglaia smiling and turned to Charlie. "You didn't mention your bride to be a commoner, Charlie?"

"_T__alking about arrogance__,_" said Sebastian into his glass, and braved being nudged in the ribs by his master.

"Just imagine how desperate I was when I received news that Charlie was going to get married," said Lady Aglaia. "You see, no married man ever sets his foot on this island. It's part of the rules."

"Is it also part of the rules to steal your 'guests'' memories?" asked Sebastian with sudden sharpness, turning his champagne flute upside down and spilling the contents on the ground.

"Sebastian," hissed Charlie. "Stop being rude."

"I'm afraid my sirens overdid their effort," said Lady Aglaia. "It's not out of the ordinary for our visitors to feel a little confused."

"I'm not confused, I'm downright amnesic," said Sebastian tartly. "Makes my murderous intents stand out even sharper."

"We will find something to satisfy them," promised Lady Aglaia with a lilting laugh and flourish movement of her hand. "Until then, please accept my offer for hospitality. Charlie? Why don't you show your friends around?" She started to walk back to the fountain where, no doubt, pleasanter conversations awaited her.

"Because," said Charlie very, very softly, "none of them looks inclined to follow me..."

"Indeed," said Josy folding her arms.

"Not until I get some answers," said Sebastian. "I believe I just threatened to kill her. And she laughs and invites us to stay? Is she insane? Or just masochistically inclined?"

"She's whatever you prefer her to be," said Charlie. "This is the island of joy. A haven for the sailors who find the way and are admitted. It's existed for a thousand years. Maybe more. Don't let the first minutes forge your opinion."

"If this is so terrific, then why did you leave?" Sebastian's voice registered between a hiss and a whisper.

"Sebastian?" said Ciel, tugging the demon's sleeve. "This is none of our business. Let's go."

"Where to, young master?"

"I don't know. Just away from here."

"Good idea," said Charlie. "Come on. I'll show you the gardens."

* * *

They strolled under green trees, treading on the softest grass. Josy looked around herself, smiling enchantedly and pointing out butterflies and exotic flowers. Charlie seemed content with her reaction to her surroundings. Sebastian and Ciel each walked purely mechanically, lost in thoughts.

Ciel, at least, came out of his dark reverie when a pheasant crossed his way.

"That bird would make a nice dinner," he said to himself, trying to remember what made him say that. His fa- predecessor had not even taught him to shoot yet. Or had he? Coming to think about it, Ciel felt he knew exactly how to handle a rifle and hit the mark, but -

"How about a curry?" asked Sebastian, holding the dead bird up by its legs. He tried to remember what had made him kill the bird and say that. He did not even know what bits of the pheasant Ciel would find appropriate for eating. And yet he felt he had a very refined idea of what spices to use to create the perfect Indian flavor...

"What makes you think I need you to bring down my game?" snapped Ciel. "Give me a rifle, and I will - "

The demon handed him a hunting rifle. "Here you go, young master," he said. "Please, be careful. There's a pheasant in the shrub over there." Smirking, he touched his forefinger to the tip of his nose to indicate how he knew.

Ciel made up his mind so quickly, he almost needed to catch up with his own actions. He lifted the rifle and fired at the demon.

_Let's see, if you can smell that coming_, he thought, feeling surprised by his own wickedness_._ Or was it just another memory coming through?_ Let's see how it affects you –_

Sebastian smiled and held up his hand. He had caught the bullet between his left fingers.

"Mylord has missed the bird," he stated sardonically.

On a sudden idea, Ciel turned the rifle so that it pointed downwards and fired at his own foot. The shoot cackled. Ciel waited for the pain.

But there was none.

Ciel opened his eyes: The demon's left foot hovered neatly between the rifle's muzzle and Ciel's foot. There was a small round hole in the shining surface of the boot.

Ciel looked up, "You really caught the bullet for me!"

The demon grinned, "With my toe- "

Ciel reached up and slapped him. The blow actually wrung out an audible gasp, as Sebastian's head snapped sideways.

"I'll take that as an 'ouch' ", said Ciel, satisfied. He heard Charlie giggle and felt encouraged to do some gloating of his own. "Even in a game, one must never underestimate his opponent and lose focus," he explained, "I've lost interest. Here. Hold that." He thrust the rifle into Sebastian's hands. The demon, whose eyes had started to glow dangerously at the lecture, stared at it, perplexed.

At that moment, a maid stepped out of the shrubs, carrying a tray of champagne flutes. "Lady Aglaia asks whether you need - " She stopped, seeing the dead bird and the rifle in Sebastian's hands

"These birds are not for killing," she said with her strange, singing voice. "They are here for pleasure and decoration." She put down the tray and took the evidence from Sebastian's hands. "It's still warm. Maybe one can mend it." She flashed Sebastian an angry look. "Oh, what will the mistress say when she hears about this!"

The demon seemed too stunned to protest.

"Focus," mumbled Ciel, when the maid had stormed off with the dead bird.

"But - "

"Don't tell me you didn't hear her arriving? Focus, I say!" Ciel started to walk off. "The only advantage of weak, vulnerable humans over a whizz kid like you."

Charlie keeled over, laughing.

"Stop laughing," mumbled Sebastian, looking after the human boy.

Charlie made sobbing noises, trying to indicate that it was either splitting his sides or suffocating.

Sebastian glared at him. "I'm going to kill you, Charlie," he promised.

"Whatever," Charlie chuckled, sitting up and wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "Later. Good gracious, cousin, what's it like, you two living together? Fights, deaths and broken dishes?"

Slowly, Sebastian got his temper under control. Still looking after his young master, he wondered...

+++End of Chapter 2+++


	3. Dancing Demons

Hi there. I didn't think I'd finish the next chapter so soon, but here it is. Thanks to my reviewers for chapter 1 + 2 - I hope you enjoy what's coming up.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

* * *

+++Chapter 3: Dancing Demons +++

Four days had passed...

At the end of yet another uneventful afternoon, Sebastian and his cousin lounged in the parlor, trying to feel entertained by a lute player and resting on a pile of cushions. Large cushions, small cushions, round cushions, square cushions. Cushions, cushions, cushions. If you dug into them, you would find more cushions. If you delved, you eventually hit a mattress. Which was just another kind of giant cushion, after all.

Sebastian held a champagne flute, just like everyone in the musician's audience did. Just like every person in this whole damned household did. If you didn't, the maids would try to serve you a drink until you gave in. It was only a matter of time and will, whether you succumbed before or after entering a screaming fit. Which, of course, would be met with even more attention, champagne and dutiful care from the girls.

It wasn't worth it, so he had started to consider the glass a natural appendix of his hand. There were stranger things about this island than the inhabitants' overflowing hospitality.

Sebastian had found out that Charlie had stayed for almost one year, but remembered very little detail.

Where was the island located? – _No idea._

What kind of creature was the Lady Aglaia? – _A female one_ (pause, then, starting to leer) - _definitely_.

Where did all the 'guests' come from? - _Crewmembers of ships that happened to pass by. This place isn't charted on any sea map, and it can't be found if you're looking for it. _

How did Charlie get here? – "I happened to pass by. Obviously."

Exasperated by Charlie's tight-lipped attitude, Sebastian pointed out, "No one runs an island for one thousand years just to offer paradise to hapless sailors. What's her purpose?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Charlie put his index finger to his temple, indicating their over-all problem. "Maybe, when those damned effects of our journey have ebbed off, I'll be able to tell."

"I don't believe in those effects. Not if all four of us are affected." Sebastian pointed his champagne flute at the merry group of humans. "And if we're under some kind of magic spell, then I don't see why we shouldn't go and force them to take it back."

Charlie regarded Sebastian for long moments. Then he said, very seriously, "Because you and I start spilling our life blood all over this pretty marble floor almost at the sheer mentioning of words like 'before' or 'earlier' or 'once upon a time'. Find a way to stop that, and we might find a way to fight whatever is causing it. I won't risk pulling off any stunts." He paused, then added the magic words, "After all, there's Josy and your master with us in this. We must not put them in danger."

Sebastian caved in, "No."

"Especially not Josy."

"Hm." Sebastian wondered idly, if he could rip off that damned lute player's head and go unpunished. Or maybe he could get them to punish him and break this routine of music, chatting, loitering and being enthusiastic over sky, sun and surf...

One of the white-haired maids came in and approached the demons. She whispered something into Charlie's ear. His eyes lit up.

"Okay," he said, as the maid hurried on to the music-enjoying crowd. "Brace up, kid. It's time."

"Time? For what?" Involontarily, Sebastian reached for something like a vest pocket. But he didn't have a vest and no idea what he'd be trying to find in it.

"Ramón's bringing in a ship."

"So?"

"I didn't invite them to come and – and disturb the quiet of this place. I mean, until now we've been busy listening to music." Charlie's eyes had begun to sparkle.

"We're busy being bored out of our minds," corrected Sebastian, stretching lazily like a cat waking up from a nap. Charlie grinned, knowing the feeling. Knowing it only too well.

"Anyway," he said, ,"let's go and explain to them that it's rude behavior to intrude on a place like this without announcing oneself."

"I wonder if I should ask my master's permission first, or at least let him know? Let's stop over at the gardens."

"Ciel's taking a stroll? Without you by his side?"

"I've taken precautions." Sebastian gulped down his champagne and flung the empty glass in the direction of the lute player's head.

"You missed him," said Charlie.

"He's a musician, after all. One doesn't go around killing musicians. That would be savage."

"I see. Is 'ferociously educative' more consistent with your aesthetics?"

Sebastian sneered. "'Ferociously educative' is okay. _Ferociously educative_, I can do."

* * *

Ciel hadn't counted how often he had walked the same paths over and over again. The palace's gardens were vast, but not limitless. He had grown tired of butterflies, peacocks, canary brids and early evening soirées long ago, needing to remind himself that hardly four days had passed.

He'd noted three things: There were no children. The women were beautiful and devoted to their mistress, who kept to herself and rarely joined the sauntering folks. It was a fact that had somewhat reconciled Josy with this place, almost to the point where she seemed hesistant ever to leave again.

"I didn't think Sebastian'd let you go out alone," she said now, walking beside Ciel and holding her face up to the sun.

"We did have an argument, when I stated that I wanted to talk to you alone," acceded Ciel. "But we agreed on a compromise."

"The straw hat, the year's supply of tissues and the umbrella? Don't you think he's being a little overprotective?"

"He's acting according to his understanding of the role of a parent," said Ciel. "He's obsessed with the idea of humans walking a thin line between death of heatstroke and death of influenza. But his concern's not my reason for actually wearing this thing." Ciel put down the straw hat and looked at it. "I feel like I've known someone, some guy who always wore a hat like this. I thought that it might help me remember."

"You're trying so hard," mumbled Josy, enjoying the sunshine.

"I don't know about you, but I'm sure I have a life back where I come from," said Ciel, trying with the rest of his patience to make it sound asking instead of snippy.

"That's the difference between us. You're caught up in your past. I'm thinking of days to come. And I don't feel like I've lost anything that this palace couldn't replace."

"Maybe, if I could figure out why you recognized Charlie right on awakening...?"

"He's my fiancée. I think it's quite natural that my heart should know him."

"You also knew that it was your wedding ceremony we all got spirited away from," insisted Ciel. "Is there really nothing else?"

Josy smiled a suggestive smile, "Only some scenes that are too private to talk about."

"Anything could be helpful."

"Not the things I have in mind, no."

"I don't mean to disillusion you," said Ciel sourly. "But I've been living door to door with you for four days now, and walls in this place are no thicker than dried seaweed. Seems there's not much intimate detail I don't know about your private life by now. Take yesterday, for example, when Charlie and you kept me awake almost till midnight and - " As he talked and Josy's face blushed a deep red, there was a curious sound:

_Click-clack._

_Tap._

_FLUFF!_ The straw hat was pulled down over Ciel's ears and eyes.

Over the rustle of straw he heard Sebastian chiding, "_That hat's for wearing, young master!_ Dear me! How am I going to protect you when you're not even heeding the smallest bit of advice!?"

And Josy, "Charlie! Ciel says he heard – _mmmhphphph, oh_!"

"If anyone needs us, we're at the quay, okay?_ Nod your head, cubby._ Great. See you," said Charlie. "Sebastian? Let's go."

_Voosh._

_Voosh._

Ciel pushed up the brim of his hat. "What was that about?"

"I don't know." Josy touched her fingertips to her lips. "But as far as I'm concerned, he can drop out of any tree and do that to me without explaining anything, anytime."

* * *

The ship was an old-fashioned three-master that had definitely seen better days. Ramón was in the water, looking dangerous and embracing her tightly. He also held her stationed at just a little more than a leap's distance from the dock.

A human leap's distance, of course.

The demons had not had any problems getting aboard. Ciel and Josy could tell by the scared cries that the infernal party was already at full sway. They continued to run and pushed through the onlooking crowd of sirens, palace staff and guests, until they had a good view of what was happening on deck.

There were about twenty men, sailors mostly, but also a captain and two gentlemen in fine linnen outfits – probably the heads of the expedition. They moved in a tight bunch, being chased over the deck by Charlie. Sebastian was on the highest mast top, moving like a black cat and doing a pole dance.

"Sebastian! You're missing the fun!" yelled Charlie.

"Lots of fun up here," Sebastian replied, resting his left foot against the mast and sliding it up until he was doing the splits, standing up.

"Okay, missing the feast, then!"

Sebastian hooked his knee around the mast and dangled his upper body backwards, arms spread wide as if savoring the seawind on his face, "I don't feed on random souls anymore!"

There was a loud crash on deck. Splintered wood flew, and a man sailed overboard, describing a high arc. One of Ramón's tentacles slid into the water after him. Leering upside down at the scene below, Sebastian arched his back and bent his standing leg until his head nearly touched his ankle. When the basis of the mast came within reach, he grabbed it and slowly straightened his legs upwards.

Ciel and Josy listened and watched, horrified. The rest of the audience looked on, looking baffled. Everyone seemed to feel that this was not the way a proper welcome should be conducted. But no one felt motivated to intervene with a pair of supernaturals so violently out of control and obviously enjoying it.

For one moment, Charlie stood on the rail, carried there by his own momentum like a skateboarder in a half-pipe: "Goof ball!" He pivoted and disappeared back on deck.

"All I crave," stated Sebastian, flipping over and balancing with his feet on the yard again, "is my master's soul." He hooked his right foot around the basis of the mast and, holding on with both hands, started to spin. Soon, he was whirling at a crazy speed, his hair whipping about his head. His silhouette was a great sight against blue sky and dark shadows, but a deeply disturbing one, nevertheless.

Ciel stood with his head tipped back, staring up. An image tried to form in his mind. _That sight!_ The sight of a dancing demon; he had seen it before -

The mast started to shake in its foundations.

On the aft deck, another sailor crushed through the rail, trying to get away from the beast on his heels. Charlie stopped short and turned on his heels, startling another mariner who had hoped to sneak past unnoticed. Stumbling backwards, the man hit the steering wheel and the ship careened.

The audience on the quay started to back off.

"Mylord!" Josy pulled Ciel's sleeve. He didn't react. The image of his bloody past was in front of his mind's eye now. It was taking his breath and freezing his heart.

Above their heads, yards cracked, sails ripped and ropes came tumbling down: Sebastian was taking the rigging apart. Charlie was wreaking havoc on deck. Tentacles started to curl over the rail and swish across the planks. Pieces of wood and lengths of heavy rope crashed down on the quay. The audience had started to leave in earnest, seeing the danger and not wanting to get hurt.

"Ciel! Let's go! The ship isn't going to stand this much longer!" Josy grabbed his shoulder and shook. Finally, Ciel turned to her. His eyes shocked her.

"Stop it," he mumbled. He closed his eyes tightly and clenched his fists, shouting, "_Sebastian! Stop it!"_

"Charlie!" shouted Josy, not knowing what to do. She didn't really expect someone to answer, but -

_Click-clack, _went Sebastian's heels, followed by a soft "_tap_" - the sound of Charlie landing beside him.

Sebastian immediately went to his haunches before Ciel. "Master? What are you scared of?"

Ciel wasn't able to answer, trying to control his panting and the nausea. _He was not going to vomit in front of these people. He was not going to –_

He vomited.

"Ciel! My goodness!" That was Josy, and Charlie's answer, "Josy, love, don't get involved."

"But I - "

"Demon business. Sebastian can handle it."

"No," gasped Ciel, "I am - human – I can – stand - "

Sebastian reached out with his left hand and put it to his panting, choking master's face.

"What have you seen?" he asked calmly. "What have you seen with those eyes of yours?"

Ciel tried to control his breathing, still feeling sick and embarrassed beyond words. Sebastian's thumb began to stroke the cheekbone, right under the eye. "Those big, desperate eyes of yours..."

Ciel looked up and looked into the demon's eyes. He met sarcasm there, dark pleasure and greed. "Call my name," said the demon. His index finger had begun to move playfully, lifting the eyepatch. "Call my name - "

"Se- " Like in a dream, Ciel opened his mouth, "Sebas- "

"Oookay. That's enough," said Charlie casually. He put his finger under Ciel's jaw and closed it, cutting him off in mid-word. With his left hand he gave Sebastian a powerful shove that sent him tumbling backwards. Shocked, Ciel realized just how close the demon had been. He flinched from a light touch, then recognized that it was only Josy rushing to his side. He warded her off, "Don't touch me."

"But, Ciel - "

"Leave me alone!" he snapped, then continued to catch his breath.

Sebastian blinked up at Charlie, "Thanks. That was helpful."

"You're welcome." Charlie shrugged, "I figured that just because you said his soul's all you crave these days, you didn't mean, like, _right now_."

"Absolutely." Sebastian accepted his cousin's hand and got up. "I'd probably have wasted one hell of an effort just like that."

"I wonder: Is it really worth it?" Charlie shook his head, sorrowful. "Kid, from what I've just seen, you're starving."

"Arent' you two being a bit tasteless?" asked Josy. "That's living people's souls you're talking about here."

"Er, no, sweetums. We're talking about _his_ soul only." Charlie pointed at Ciel. "And why Sebastian should take better care of himself and - " He turned back to his cousin, "_Eat! Something!_"

"But that's disgusting!" protested Josy.

"Beg your pardon, Miss Josy," said Sebastian. He spoke with dignity. "But I never mark a human without laying down the terms for my engagement. Even if he doesn't remember it now, there's a price that's still due and that he agreed to pay - "

"_Hey, you_!" shouted a voice from the wreck. They all looked and found a lonely figure standing in the sad remains of the rigging. It was hardly more than a boy, green-eyed, with clipped blond hair. He wore a straw hat and rubber boots that reached up to his thighs. He carried a sieve on a bamboo stick that was probably useful for catching leaves, insects and goldfish out of a garden pond. He pointed it fiercely at Ramón. "How'm I supposed to collect souls out of the water when your pet is sitting on them?"

"A shinigami?" said Charlie.

"I'm going crazy!" yelled the youth, wielding a notebook and a pen. "Five, six – no, four - "

"Where do they recruit them these days?" moaned Sebastian.

"Got to stop him counting. _Biiig trouble ahead!_" Charlie leaped back on deck. "C'mon!"

Sebastian lingered, looking doubtfully at Ciel.

"It's okay, Sebastian," said Ciel. "Go."

In a flash, Sebastian was gone, joining Charlie in the hunt for the shinigami.

Josy looked after him, "Did you really pledge him your soul?"

"My contracts are my business," said Ciel, climbing to his feet. "Josy? Don't go marrying Charlie. You are so pretty and young. You deserve something better than this."

"Look who's talking. Just how old are you?"

"I don't remember," said Ciel. "But you must understand that this is taking you nowhere. Or rather, it's going to take you places no human should ever have to enter."

"I really don't think you're qualified to advice me on this." Josy looked to the wreck, where the shinigami was running and lunging for the possession of his death scythe that was passed to and fro between the demons. "After all, Charlie and I don't share some kind of Faustian contract. It's a relationship. Not the easiest one, heavens no, but - "

"He's killing people to feed."

"So would Sebastian, if he didn't have this special crush on you." Josy looked doubtful and sad. "I guess that makes us a little bit demonic ourselves, doesn't it?"

"We are humans," said Ciel, desperately. "You and I, we stumbled into this. But we are human beings."

"Are we really?" asked Josy. "There must be a reason why we were all taken here. Ever thought of that? I understand that Charlie was the only one of us who lived here before. The sirens came for him. So what are we doing here, you and I and Sebastian?"

"Maybe, as soon as Charlie can remember - "

"I don't think he will. Because I don't think he's trying." Josy narrowed her eyes. "He keeps telling me that for reasons that fortunately don't apply to you and me, the demons are in trouble when they consciously try to or are pushed to remember. That's certainly true for Sebastian. He's spitting blood and looking terrible for hours afterwards, at least three times a day. Now, when have you seen that sort of thing happen to Charlie the last time?"

"I thought, it was just because he's not around me at all times like Sebastian is..." Ciel's eyes went wide, "But if you're saying... that means he's lying to us!"

"Probably just not telling the entire story." Josy smiled darkly.

Ciel was short of storming the ship and pulling the demon out of the rigging by his ankle, "We've got to make him tell what he knows!"

"Make him? Ciel, he's a demon. We cannot make him do or relate anything he doesn't want to give or share. But we can always go and think for ourselves." Josy started to walk back to the palace and beckoned Ciel to follow, "C'mon. I may have thought of a way to shed some light on your past."

* * *

They returned to the palace in silence and unheeded by the staff. Slipping into Josy's room, Ciel stood beside the door, making sure they were alone.

"Looks like we went unnoticed," he said. "Of course, Sebastian would argue that human senses are limited. But I guess we'll just have to take chances."

Josy was rummaging in a drawer, "What's the last thing you remember?" she asked.

"My parents are dead. I'm in a – I'm in dire trouble. Sebastian shows up. He proposes to make a contract, I agree and he puts his mark on me." _And something I don't want to talk about... images of a dancing demon and an ocean of blood..._

"How old were you at that time?"

Ciel counted carefully, "Ten, maybe just turned eleven. I'm not too sure about dates, either. What are you suggesting?"

"Let me see your teeth." Josy approached his face with a sewing needle and a purposeful gleam in her eyes. "Come on, Ciel. Open up."

Ciel stared cross-eyed at the pointed piece of metal.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Josy explained, "I just want to see... Do you have all your permanent teeth?"

Alarmed, Ciel probed with his tongue. "Do I look like I didn't?"

"Open up, so I can tell."

Still reluctant, Ciel opened his mouth and closed his eyes tightly. He could hear and feel the needle touch his teeth, as Josy ticked them off one by one.

"Something wrong?" asked Sebastian. The demons stood in the doorway as if they'd materialized there. They leaned on each other like partying human youths and even stumbled a little, since Sebastian was supporting most of their combined weight. He also clutched the boy-shinigami's death scythe.

"Just counting his teeth," said Josy.

While Charlie continued to look tousled and flushed, Sebastian sobered up within seconds. He started to look parentally worried. "His teeth?"

Charlie stuck his tongue in his cheek.

Josy straightened up. "He's got twenty-seven teeth," she said, sounding satisfied. "With one molar just coming through."

"Your point?" asked Sebastian stooping a little to look into Ciel's mouth. Ciel made a point of shutting his jaw. Charlie seemed very concentrated as he moved his tongue in his mouth.

"Don't you see?" asked Josy. "Human children have less teeth than adults. They get replaced during childhood and some are even added."

"Well, and how many teeth is he supposed to have?" Sebastian jabbed Charlie in the ribs. "Stop counting, nitwit."

"Thirty-two-and-something?" Charlie suggested, grimacing painfully. "Sharp like razors. Next time you're shoving me, give me a warning."

"Twenty-eight is the full set of a young adult," said Josy, looking alternately at Ciel and Sebastian. "Which means that Ciel is in his early teens. Meaning that a lot more than two or three months must have passed since the two of you made your contract."

Sebastian and Ciel looked at each other. "I've been stuck with him_ for years_?" they asked in baffled unison.

"How come you know so much about anatomy?" asked Charlie.

Josy shrugged, "I've been reading some about it lately. I thought it might be useful one day."

"So it is. Very useful," said Ciel, feeling dizzy. "I think I'll go outside. Take a stroll. I need some fresh air. – No, Sebastian." His raised hand stopped the demon who had taken a step forward. "I'll go alone. I need to think. I've just been told that I'm missing three or four years. That might be about a third of my life."

"I can't allow you to leave," said Sebastian firmly. "It's a bad world out there. Something could happen to you!"

"Like what? There's only two wild beasts on this island, and they're right in front of me now."

"A thousand things can damage a human body. In your state of excitement, you could walk right into a tree."

"And squirrels will drop chestnuts on my head." Ciel grimaced. "I'm scared!"

"And I really can't picture myself putting up with your adolescent stubbornness for very much longer, _son_."

"Now, now," said Charlie. "These are stunning news, indeed. Why don't we go and discuss them over a dish of - "

"_Because_," hissed Sebastian, now turning on his cousin, "the _dishes_ they serve here taste like something that's been dragged up from the slimey bottom of the sea."

"Well, they're prepared to meet the human sense of taste, not ours, but - "

"_They are not_," raged Sebastian, eyes blazing. "That what I'm talking about! These so-called dishes are stale, uninspired, and composed of random-quality ingredients! Even Bard could do better than prepare such sludge!"

Charlie blinked in surprise. Ciel started when a memory unexpectedly shone up.

"Who?" asked Josy. "You just said a name. What was it? Sebastian?"

Sebastian looked confused, "I don't remember."

"Sebastian," said Ciel, imitating Josy's reasonable tone of voice. "It was only ten seconds ago. It was 'Bahd' or something."

"I don't think that's a good idea, cubby," said Charlie slowly.

"Shut up," Josy told him. "Human business. Ciel can handle it."

Ciel tried to move the image into focus: "A guy...blond hair, white outfit. Wielding some kind of...kitchen utensil."

Sebastian reeled, and not just because of his high heels, "I – don't know. I - "

"Cigarette in his mouth," prompted Ciel.

Sebastian put a hand first to his head, then he covered his mouth and nose. His left hand outstretched, as if to grope his way in the dark, he stumbled toward the door. He missed the opening by three inches and went partway through the wall, trailing a wisp of shadows.

"Nice going!" Charlie flashed Ciel and Josy a glance that mixed concern and reproach. Then he hurried out, calling after his cousin in a language neither human understood.

Josy touched her finger to the blood on the doorframe.

"We almost had him there," she said. "Damned. I really thought he'd make it this time."

"I'm going for a walk," said Ciel. "Bard. I remember Bard now. And Ma- Maia. Marion?" Ciel walked into the corridor, his eyes on the floor before him. "I almost got her name, Josy. It's – Miriam? No. Mary-Ann?"

He didn't care whether Josy followed. He felt he needed to move, to jog his memory by physical action. Thus, he hastened through the vast palace corridors, trying to catch the elusive names of persons he'd known. Names from the lost third of his life.

+++End of Chapter 3+++

* * *

A/N: Well, that's it for today. I wonder, if Ciel's body ages at a normal rate (or at all). But when recently a kid I know proudly showed me his first missing baby tooth, the idea of what might actually be an easy determinable difference between Ciel at the beginning of the series and "current Ciel" was born :) I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing this down (especially the pole dancing part :) ). Looking forward to your reviews :)


	4. A Mirage, Dissolved

Hi there. I'm really sorry I kept you waiting. Real life required my attention in a way that I hadn't seen coming up, and suddenly, four weeks had simply passed without me really noticing. Since you've waited for so long, I decided not to clip this chapter but upload it just the way and length it turned out. Hope, there's still someone with me. If you are - enjoy, and please, let me know.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

* * *

+++ Chapter 4: A Mirage, Dissolved +++

Not looking at anyone or anything save the floor in front of his feet, Ciel stomped through the corridors of the palace. People he met tried to stop him, to talk to him or offer him champagne. But he ignored them, brushed them off and shouldered past them in a brusque way that served to secure him the solitude he'd set out to find in the first place.

He didn't know how long he'd been walking like this, when a change of light made him look up. He found himself in a large room that was designed to give the impression of being an underwater grotto. The floor and the walls were tiled in shades of green that shifted and danced with the light falling through the stained glass window. Artificial stalactites covered the high domed ceiling, and there were marble columns and arcades carefully carved to look like they consisted of corals, sea-shells and starfish.

Embedded in the middle of the room was a round pond like a swimming pool – save for its inhabitant that filled every inch of it, and more. Giant tentacles curled and slithered on the floor, while the squid's body quivered and shook as if it was singing or maybe humming happily to itself.

"Hello, Ramón," said Ciel, still a little distracted.

The Beast of the Last Days stopped moving and gazed at the visitor with red demon eyes. On the marble edge of the pool before him lay glittering objects, neatly lined up as if for inspection. He nervously moved some limbs to hide them from Ciel's view.

"I understand. Charlie once said that it'd been your job to guard some sunken treasure he went hunting for. Gathering yourself a little treasure to sit on now, are you?" Ciel stepped nearer, lifting his eye-patch and ignoring the squid's growing restlessness. Sebastian's mark was powerful enough to keep the monster at bay. He let his gaze wander over golden pins, ivory combs, all sorts of currency and even an old sword. "That's a nice collection you've got there, and - what's that?" Ciel's heart jumped at the sight of a ring. A ring that was too big for his hand, well, probably not for his thumb.

_His thumb._ He'd felt, on first awakening in this place, that he was missing something there, hadn't he?

He saw this ring, and he knew that he had found what he'd been looking for. It had been his predecessor's ring. It was his now, his heritage, his burden and curse.

Making a dart for the jewel, Ciel reached for it, snatched it up and withdrew hastily. Ramón seemed startled by the hit and run, but he started to unfold his tentacles. Yet, being a really large beast, he was not particularly fast getting moving. Ciel ducked, evading a swishing limb, then he jumped over the next. His mind caught up with what he'd done and the trouble he was in, and realization left him at a loss: _Where to go? What to do? _The giant squid heaved himself further out of the water.

Fortunately, Ciel reflected, he had watched enough of Ramón's tactics at battle to know that he need not expect several limbs to move in concerted action to grab, hold and kill. Rather than using his arms purposefully, Ramón would keep groping and thrashing more or less blindly, hoping for success by sheer power and the number of limbs.

There was a hell of a lot of tentacles lashing about now. Where they hit the columns, the filigree artwork was damaged, and tiles broke.

Desperately, Ciel looked for an exit: The door where he'd entered was off-limits due to the beast's rage. But there was someone, a man standing at one of the windows.

_No, not standing._ The stranger had pushed open the window and was leaning over the sill from outside, beckoning. "Quick, boy! Over here!"

He looked like a vagabond, this man, with matted hair, stubble on his face and a wide, simple linen shirt that had seen better days. But he reached out his hand for Ciel, and having no alternative, Ciel went for it. For some mysterious reason, the way was relatively free of tentacles. Ramón had to turn his bulk a little to secure this exit. He had already begun to do so, but again the narrowness of his pool and his size prevented him from effectively blocking Ciel's escape.

Ciel grabbed the man's hand. He was pulled forward roughly, banged against the stone sill and gave a sound of pain and irritation.

"Shuddup, the demons'll hear you!" The man pulled again, less vigorous this time. Ciel scrambled on to the sill and felt a tentacle swish past his soles. He threw himself forward, expecting to land on lawn and being surrounded by exited revelers wanting an explanation. Then he was out in the open and tumbling down a stony slope. There were two things on his mind as he rolled and rolled, unable to stop himself and not even sure he'd want to: The enraged Beast of the Last Days wouldn't reach him now. And he hadn't know there was such a hillside to be encountered outside any of the palace windows.

When Ciel finally came to a halt, he remained spread-eagled for some seconds, catching his breath and tasting blood in his mouth. He was sure he'd broken some bones. He only hoped it wasn't some major ones.

Why wasn't Sebastian beside him by now, helping him stand up? Why wasn't the demon saying anything? Probably scared speechless, witnessing his master's heavy fall. He'd vent his fake paternal concern soon enough.

Ciel would tell him that the treasure recovered had been worth it all, and so much more.

Smiling, Ciel touched his thumb, feeling the reassuring presence of his ring. He opened his eyes.

There was no Sebastian.

There was no garden. No trees. No music, laughter, maids.

That mirage had come apart, thoroughly dissolved into the blood-chilling howl of a raging storm.

Ciel was lying on barren rubble that pressed into his back. He sat up quickly, thereby proving that, in fact, no bone had been broken at all. The palace was a black shadow that towered on a hilltop behind him. It looked like a big animal with strange gleaming eyes before a slate-gray sky that was hung with dark, torn clouds. From some distance Ciel heard the sound of a troubled sea. A flock of seagulls rushed past overhead, screaming, driven by the wind. A silent form approached him, two-legged, tall.

"Where am I?" asked Ciel, his voice tiny in the roar of the elements. "Sebastian?"

The man stopped in front of him, "My name's Elfin," he said. Ciel recognized his rescuer, who had obviously taken a slower, less painful path down the hill. He offered his hand to help Ciel up. "And you have successfully stepped through the looking glass. Welcome to my side of this island of wonders."

* * *

Somewhere in the palace...

Closing in on the guestrooms...

Ciel's room...

Two insubstantial shapes that had been chasing each other all over the palace appeared, filling the room with wafting shadows. The Lady Aglaia, who had waited silently watched with interest.

After some more seconds of whirling and lingering, two forms regained form and solidity in the middle of the carpet. One of them stood firmly on two human shaped feet in black slippers. The other swayed and was caught and helped to sit in an armchair. Breathing deeply, Sebastian tipped his head back until it rested against the chair.

Lady Aglaia continued to wait, needing to have a word with Charlie. But Charlie was still occupied with his cousin, regarding him with a worried expression: "Well. Now we're back. Could've come here without brushing through the deepest cellars and highest attics before, of course. But we're back. Are you satisfied?"

Sebastian shook his head. "Something's not right," he managed to say.

"Of course it isn't. I keep trying to tell you - "

"Don't you start again on the topic of food," said Sebastian. "All I'll ever feed on now is my master's soul."

"I'm sure it's a nice thing to dream of," Charlie said firmly. "But your physical form needs sustenance _now._"

He waited a moment to let the advice sink in. Sebastian sat, frowning, eyes squeezed shut, as if trying to catch a very elusive sound.

"You would feel so much better," insisted Charlie. "Maybe I could get you one of the sirens? They have souls, too, you know. And they're not even human. I guess, feeding on them won't damage your oath of allegiance to your master."

"I forbid you to do any such thing," said the Lady Aglaia, finally stepping forward.

"Oh no, gimme a break," mumbled Charlie, then turned to face her. "I'm open for suggestions. Look at him and dare tell me he'll be fine with – with another glass of champagne, sunshine, music and everybody loving each other."

"You were fine with it at your first visit," reminded the lady. "You've been fine with it until now."

"Well, not entirely - "

"I know. That's why I'm here, dutifully, to tell you once again that I don't approve of your idea of a past-time, Charlie." Lady Aglaia approached him, declaiming her reproach like something she'd repeated time and again. Which, in fact, she had. "You cannot treat new visitors the way you did. You cannot pounce on them like a wanton cat, chase them, scare them and kill them! If the shinigami get scent of this - " She raised her finger in front of Charlie's face. He seized it with his hand like a mosquito.

"I don't think little green-eye remembered to take stock, once we were done with him," he said. "Anyway, it's not detection by the shinigami I'm concerned of - "

"Has my hearing betrayed me? Can it be?" A mocking sparkle came into her eyes, "Charlie claims to be concerned of something?"

"Stop mocking me. You know my reason for being here - "

"And I approve of it even less than of your sports," said Aglaia softly. "In fact, I do not see why we need to keep them all here, causing trouble, when the two of us could be - "

"_Gone!_" gasped Sebastian, startling them both. He sat up abruptly, gripping the armrests of his chair. His eyes were wide open.

"Er," began Charlie cautiously, "are you ok- ?"

"He's gone! I don't know where he is." Sebastian looked panic-stricken. "I can't sense him!"

Charlie let go of the woman, "Who? Ciel? He'll have gone for a walk as he said he would."

"I told him not to leave!" Sebastian was up and at the door in an instant. Charlie caught him and grappled with him. Injured and scared, Sebastian showed an unwelcome tendency to turn himself into a body of shadows and go hunting for the boy like a crazed, red-eyed storm cloud.

"Squid sucked your reason? You can't pull that off here," Charlie clutched Sebastian's shoulders – what was still tangible of them - and shook fiercely. Sebastian was in immediate danger of being dispelled completely, and he did his best to reverse the effect.

"Relax," said Charlie, ceasing to shake when he felt solid collarbone beneath his fingers again. "He's just a human boy. He can't have gone far."

"But I should be able to sense him where-ever he is." Sebastian's eyes burnt in the brightest carmine Charlie had ever seen in one of his kind.

"You're strung out," he said, realizing that for once he sounded like the reasonable part of their working alliance. "Just, er, pull yourself together and sit back for five minutes. _Two minutes._ And if you still can't locate him by then, I'll go looking for him with you."

"You'll go looking for him now," said Sebastian, regaining his form, his footing and some kind of control. He looked over at Lady Aglaia. "As will all of this household."

* * *

"You were lucky that I came by and heard the tumult," said Elfin to Ciel. "You can take my hand. I'm not going to hurt you."

"I - " Ciel shook his head, "Sorry, but I won't be touched so easily. I'm confused. I don't know - "

"But it's become clearer now, isn't it?" Elfin removed his hand without showing irritation.

"What happened?"

"Lady Aglaia's charm. It only works inside her realm. Once you step through the circle, your eyes are opened."

"But I've been to the outside before," Ciel pointed out. "The gardens, even the piers and the beach. There was no barren desert like this. Never. Nowhere."

"That's because you left by the doors. There's a magic inherent to doors," explained Elfin. "To see things as they really are, you must choose the unusual path. Go through the chimney like Santa. The sewer – haven't you ever wondered what's really down there? – or some rabbit hole. Or - the windows. Just like you did now."

"He's my butler," said Ciel, as if he hadn't listened.

"Come again?"

"Sebastian," said Ciel. "He said – no, we settled for the story that he'd adopted the role of my father. But he didn't. _That guy's my damned butler!_" Ciel wondered if he would start laughing maniacally or break down sobbing. "My butler!" It was so relieving to have one's memory streaming back, to be able and recall all the important events and facts of one's life.

"The focus being on 'damned', of course," mumbled Elfin.

Ciel drew himself up. Time to end this. "Sebastian? I am here!"

"That won't work," said Elfin calmly.

Ciel cast him a dark look, repeating his summon, "Sebastian! Come to me!"

No response.

"What's keeping him?," asked Ciel. "I remember it all now. Sebastian should be here, by my side, now that I've called him."

"Your demon can't track you out here." Elfin started to walk down the hillside. "You've got the homing beacon, his mark. But he's lost the signal, so to say. He's still caught within the spiderweb of the palace. You're not."

Ciel stopped. "Gosh," he said. "I suppose that's pretty hard on him."

Elfin beckoned with his hand. "Come with me. This is an unfriendly place. Let's find shelter and food."

There was nothing left to do. Ciel followed his new acquaintance downhills, stumbling over rubble and spreading his ankle. Elfin led the way, sometimes striding fast, then going slow, warning Ciel of unsafe ground. The sound of the sea grew louder, until they walked on wet sand. The sea was just as dark gray and uninviting as the sky stretching above it. White, salty foam sprinkled Ciel's face, and he shielded himself with his sleeve as he threw his weight against the storm. Finally, he heard Elfin's call, "Here we are!"

He looked up, blinking through eyelashes that were heavy with moisture and salt. There was a little house built in the shadow of a small cliff. It seemed constructed of flotsam and jetsam, but there was a light burning inside.

A woman stood in the door, wiping her hands on her apron. Ciel gasped, seeing her white hair with the black tips.

"Yes," said Elfin. "She is one of them. A maid of the Lady Aglaia, a siren. And she is my wife. Her name's Alba. Alba? This is the boy from the palace. You know, Ciel, pardon me – the Earl Phantomhive?"

"Come in, mylord," said Alba with her singing voice that was crystal-clear and carried easily over the surf and the wind. She turned sideways to let her guest and her husband pass. "Elfin? I have collected some seaweed, and djoo's ready."

"No need for that now. He's human. He'll do better with some cocoa. He's been living on champagne for days, and at his age."

"I'm older than you may think,« said Ciel, biting down the addition, _I have all my permanent teeth, twenty-seven with one molar coming through._

"So are we," said Alba, smiling. "Please. Have a seat. Are you hungry?"

* * *

Ten minutes later, Ciel was seated on a bench in a small but neat kitchen. There was a counter where Alba was at work, preparing fish for salting, and a big chair with Elfin's task, a damaged fisher net, in a basket beside it. There was a small storage room, that was basically cut from the cliff behind the house, and only another room that was unlit and used as a bed chamber. The kitchen walls held shelves with pots, cups and storage pots. There was an oven beside Ciel, and a wooden table with food in front of him.

He didn't think he'd have touched bread, butter and salted herring under normal circumstances. But he _was_ hungry, and besides, Elfin had been right, and the salty food served to get rid of the taste - and the effects - of too much champagne and wine.

"It's all coming back to me now," said Ciel between two bites. "I remember persons and names and places and events. It doesn't hurt, and it's not confusing anymore. It simply feels like waking up from having been seriously ill for a couple of days."

"I compared it to the first drink of fresh water after spending two weeks at high sea in a calm," said Elfin, reaching for Alba's hand. "But other than my comrades, I didn't lose my life on this island. I found it. – It's an old story, and I'm not sure if you want to hear it."

"I love stories," Ciel reassured him. "C'mon. You brought me here to hear it, didn't you?"

"Well, no," said Elfin. "I brought you here because I passed by that window and heard the noise of the thrashing squid. And after getting you out of there, I couldn't very well leave you on the rocks, alone. I mean, I could have. But there's this little matter of two demons looking out for you that would probably have very peculiar ideas of what to do with someone who left you alone."

"Except, of course, when they're not looking out for me," said Ciel. "What happened to Sebastian?"

"Well, as I told you before he can't sense you right now, and - "

"Elfin," said Alba. "I think, what he asked for is more like the over-all explanation. Let's give it to him." She poured out more cocoa, saying, "You see, Ciel, my Lady Aglaia and her servant maids were mortal once, long ago. It was at a time, when the world of man and spirits was not separated, and gods and demons could be met walking the earth. One day, an ancient supernatural asked for a night's lodging at Lady Aglaia's palace. I'm not sure if he was a god. His powers, at any rate, were great and his desires were very human. So was the jealousy of his spouse. Still, my lady thought she could triumph and, through him, become one of the supernaturals herself. In the end, she and her maids who had covered up the affair were made to live on this island, cursed to grant hospitality to travelers that come to her place. For the trouble she caused in the sphere of the spirits back then, she now must destroy the happiness and lives of mortals, who are so unfortunate as to come across these shores. And she must never allow them to leave."

"But what's the point in making people forget what they've lost?," asked Ciel.

"They are easier to handle, falling for the pleasures of this life that is offered to them," Elfin said. "But they don't forget forever. That's part of the curse, hers and theirs. They remember, after forty, or fifty, or even seventy years. Sometimes, memory is jogged by a word spoken in conversation or a certain piece of music. Sometimes it's only the form of a particular cloud in the blur sky that reminds someone of a face one used to know. Whatever it is, it's too late to return and find the world outside as it was when they stepped out of it."

"What do they do when they realize what's happened to them?"

"Some hurt themselves, some try to take revenge," said Alba. "Some lose their minds, but mostly they try to leave. With my sisters circling their vessel, they don't make it very far."

In the silence that followed the storm was very loud as if the wind itself was trying to tell its part of the story. Ciel got the idea.

"How many people are there on this island?," he asked, "I've only seen the same handful over and over again. And they didn't behave like the average sailors in the East End taverns. They were - civilized. Interested in arts and music."

Elfin said, "The Lady Aglaia's gardens are vast, and it would be a poor island of pleasure, indeed, if it didn't serve different tastes. Not all men traveling on ships fancy East End taverns. Just like one probably could not very well put you between drunk brutes and expect you to feel at home, mylord."

Ciel acknowledged this with a curt nod of his head, "Okay, so let's carry this story on into modern times: One day, about two years ago, Charlie was led here by his meandering journeys. He lost his memory like everyone else, but being a demon he also recovered sooner than anyone else. He left successfully, again due to being a demon. The lady of this island must never allow someone to leave. So she brings him back first chance there is. Which happens to be his wedding, and unfortunately, Sebastian and I are around, too. It was probably Ramón not knowing which demon to take. So he collected them both. And the two mortals that he sensed were somehow connected to them."

"That's the story in a nutshell," said Elfin. "Only that Charlie didn't recover because of him being a demon. He recovered because we, Alba and I, helped him."

"You?" asked Ciel, flabbergasted. "Why? And how?"

"It only takes a little seaweed and this small fellow here." Elfin opened a starfish-shaped box. There was something moving in it, a transparent creature no bigger than the palm of Ciel's hand. "His name's Djoo."

Ciel eyed the thing curiously, "What does he do?"

Elfin touched his finger to the little creature. It held on, and he pulled it up gently, stretching the elastic limb like a gum band, "Tampering with human minds is one thing. Controlling demons is playing in another league altogether. I daresay there's more amiss with your butler than could be set right by leaving the circle and serving him cocoa. You've got to bring him here."

"I'll try," said Ciel. "But cancel the cocoa. I remember very clearly that Sebastian doesn't have a sweet tooth. Even if he serves the best muffins on earth and probably beyond."

Alba and Elfin looked at each other.

"Amazing," said Alba.

"The muffins?"

"No. The thing about Sebastian not liking cocoa. Charlie just loved it."

* * *

One hour had passed since Sebastian had found out that his master was missing. One hour, and the palace was in the process of being turned upside down. Spirits, servants, humans - the demon's relentless will had employed them all in the search without distinction. They looked everywhere, every room was searched and every corner in the park, from basement to the treetops.

As his panic grew, Sebastian started handing out curious orders so there was a lot of household chores getting done by the way: Windows got cleaned and curtains taken down, the silver cutlery was being polished. The stuffed seabirds got groomed and a census conducted among the hermit crabs populating the aquariums and ponds. Cushions and a lute flew out of the windows of the festival room, followed by a hail of shattered champagne flutes. Even Ramón, the Great Beast of the Last Days, was temporarily dislodged and sat in much too small a washtub, unhappily waiting for his pool to be cleaned of seaweed and algae. As he timidly waved his tentacles for more comfort, the accidental splashing of saltwater on the floor almost sent Sebastian into a fit of temper.

Almost.

Among the flood of half-remembered memories was the strong impulse to contain himself and not allow killing instincts to take over. Not unless his master gave the order that unleashed him.

His master wasn't present to give him any orders.

Sirens came on running, carrying sponges tied to broomsticks. Hectically, they started to dry the floor. Sebastian stood like an avenging angel, supervising them with narrowed eyes.

Charlie stepped up behind his cousin. "You can't drive them like this," he said. "It's not their fault the boy's missing."

"But it's their lack of dedication that allows him to stay missing for so long."

Charlie placed his hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Snap out of it. You're working yourself up into a state of frenzy like a mortal. Next, you'll suffer nervous breakdown like one of them."

"Don't be silly." Sebastian glowered at the hand on his shoulder, " All I'm asking them to do is put a little effort in it and - what's that?"

"What's what?" Charlie followed his cousin's suddenly distracted gaze.

"That." Pointing ahead, Sebastian took two long strides and jumped into Ramón's empty pool. The giant squid nervously wiggled his tentacles and cast Charlie a pleading glance. _How many more people were going to come and carry off pieces of his collection tonight?_ As a precaution, he started to move so that he could secure the window. Just in case. The escape of the boy had painfully reminded him of a breach in his defense: A missing tentacle where he'd once fought another monster that Charlie had brought down over his head.

Ramón wriggled in his makeshift containment, threatening to overthrow it.

Charlie stood on the edge of the pool, watching Sebastian dig in the demon squid's treasure. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you," he warned. "You know how excited he gets, and I cannot even summon a sperm whale in here."

Sebastian straightened up, looking at a round silver object in his hand.

"A pocket watch?," asked Charlie.

Sebastian struggled for words. Finally, he said, "No, it's _the_ pocket watch. The pocket watch my young master gave me to - " He stopped again. Why would he need a pocket watch? To know the right time, of course. To stay on schedule.

"What schedule?," he asked aloud. Then he stooped again and picked up something else. A small silver item. He stared at it. A red blotch appeared on the silver surface. Sebastian wiped it off with his thumb. "Charlie? What is this item?"

Charlie gave the object only a short glance. "Beats me. Some brooch."

"You're right not to tell him," said Lady Aglaia, who entered the room. "It's dangerous to look at."

"Dangerous for him, you mean. Listen, you can't keep doing that to him for ever," said Charlie, trying to sound reasonable.

"I'm not doing anything anymore," said the mistress of the palace. "It's he who keeps reopening the wounds time and again. Nothing I can do about it."

"I've been thinking, Aglaia," insisted Charlie. "We're quite different, him and me. I should've known, but, well, I chose to ignore it. Or rather, to give it a try. But he won't settle down, lean back and enjoy your presence, delightful though it is. That's just not him. On the other hand, unlike me, he's bound by a contract. Meaning that he'll do anything, stay anywhere his master wants him to do or to be. It's the boy you need to control."

"The boy," said Lady Aglaia, "has escaped."

"So has Sebastian," said one of the sirens, pointing at the open door.

"Please, tell me again," asked Josy, peering from behind a damaged column and leaning on a broomstick, "just _whose_ presence do you find delightful, love?"

"Ah, sorry, my dear," said Lady Aglaia, "but we were talking neither _to_ nor _about_ you."

Charlie face-palmed and moaned.

* * *

"Young master!" Sebastian appeared at a run, stopping so hard his heels left scars in the marble floor.

Sitting on the window sill of one of the less frequented recreation rooms, Ciel smiled. "You're late, Sebastian."

"Are you alright?" The demon lifted Ciel down, gently putting him to his feet. He looked his master up and down. He went to his haunches, clutching Ciel's shoulders and checking from close up. He touched his master's hair, he probed the smell, he reached out with every sense, looking for damage and dumping a torrent of worry on the boy's head, "Where have you been? Your presence just vanished. You could've been anywhere. To leave like this! Has it ever occur to you that I'd be worried sick about you?"

Ciel smiled, "Sebastian - "

"I told you not to go out in the dark! And alone! Just think what could've happened - "

"Sebastian?"

"_Don't you never, ever scare me like that again, young man!_"

"Sebastian!"

"Did you take an umbrella? I don't think so! And it looks like rain outside - "

Ciel's finger on his lips stopped him. "Sebastian. I want you to lift me up and go through that window."

"The window?"

"That's an order," said Ciel coolly. "No backtalking, not now nor ever again. We agreed that you'd obey my every command unquestioningly."

Sebastian couldn't help but note the boy's changed attitude, "Master? You say that like you remembered something?"

"I remember _everything_, Sebastian. But it's the master's prerogative to keep information to himself until he decides to share it. I've given you an order. Don't make me repeat myself."

"Yes, my lord." Obediently, Sebastian got to his feet and took Ciel onto his arms. Yet, there was something missing in his touch, Ciel realized. He could not pinpoint it. He was being held safely, cradled even. Sebastian's hand rested on the back of his head, protecting him. On a level of pure efficiency, there was nothing to complain about. But when Ciel put his arms around the demon's neck, he might as well have clung to a stranger.

They went through the window, landing on hard stone and sliding a little. The ground on this side of the enchanted palace wall had been further down than Sebastian had reckoned. He caught his balance, heels scraping on stone, then he stood looking about, "Young master? This is not how I expected the outside to look like?"

Ciel let his gaze wander over barren rock and gray sky. "I know. This is how Lady Aglaia's island really looks like when you leave the circle of enchantment." He looked at the demon. "I started remembering once I found myself looking at this landscape. How about you?"

"All I know is that I allowed myself to be tricked by some mumbo-jumbo." Sebastian's eyes glinted. "Young master? Can you forgive me?"

"I don't know," Ciel said. "First, I'll have to forgive myself, I guess. I allowed myself to be lulled by the sirens' charms, too." He hugged himself and shivered. "Can we go somewhere else for the discussion?"

"Where to?"

"There's a place. And people, Elfin and Alba. They offered to grant us shelter."

"Is this wise, young master?"

"It's necessary. You're hurt in a way I don't fully understand yet. And I'm freezing. I need warmth. Some food would be nice, too."

Sebastian took some experimental steps on the gravel.

"Are you aware that you're walking on six inch high heels?" Ciel asked, nervously.

"Only if you remind me." The stone slates gave way and slid a few inches. Sebastian balanced, then adjusted his center of gravity and prepared to march on.

"This won't do at all," said Ciel, speaking as much to himself as to the demon. "Sebastian, I want you to change your outfit. Change it to something a manservant to a noble family like mine would wear."

"Is that a glimpse of your re-found memory you're granting your servant to see?"

"No questions," ordered Ciel quickly. "Don't give it any thought. Just do it."

Sebastian sighed under his breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again two seconds later, not only their color had changed.

"What the heck is that supposed to be?" Ciel stared at the white powdered wig on the demon's head, the frilly shirt and heavy brocade frock coat. Without looking down he could've sworn that Sebastian was wearing knee breeches and buckled shoes.

"I changed into an outfit as befits the man-servant of a nobleman," said Sebastian defiantly.

"But that style has been out of fashion for decades, if not centuries!"

"Well, _excuse me_, young master. But how am I supposed to know what people wear in your time and corner of the world?" Sebastian looked at the frilly cuffs protruding at his wrists. "At the last social event I remember, this was a very appropriate costume to wear in public. Of course, as we found out before, that was about sixty years prior to your birth."

"Alright, whatever, I don't care," moaned Ciel. "I mean, yes, I do care. Get rid of those frills and the wig. And let's go. Before they notice we're gone."

"Even if they did, they couldn't hurt you now," promised Sebastian, tightening his grip around his master. "I lost track of you once. It will not happen again."

"Now I know," said Ciel, leaning his head against the demon's shoulder and finding only unyielding muscle and collarbone there. "The way you say that, the way you're holding me – it's as flawless and possessive as I remember it to be. But all the same, it's like your heart is just not truly in it."

+++End of Chapter 4+++


	5. Memory, Shared

Hi, everybody. Tonight it's getting real late. But I wanted to finish this, so you didn't have to wait. Because I can see by traffic stats and followers that there *are* people reading out there. I hope you enjoy this new chapter. It ended up so differently from the first draft. Once again, it was Charlie who wasn't supposed to be in it at all, but then he just - well, just read and find out :)

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

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+++ Chapter 5: Memory, Shared +++

When Ciel and Sebastian arrived at the little house under the cliffs, Elfin was outside and busy with some fishing gear.

"Be right with you," he said and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. "Go on in, you two. They're awaiting you."

"They?" asked Ciel suspiciously, as Sebastian put him down. A sense of premonition accompanied him through the door. And it was well founded.

_How could I, for one second, expect to get Sebastian out of there unnoticed,_ Ciel thought. _Face it, boy. You're dealing with demons here._

Aloud, he said, "Charlie!", in as condescending a tone of voice as he could muster.

"Hello," said Charlie who was sitting at the kitchen table and apparently assisting Alba with preparing small fish for salting. "You're late. I already started to wonder if I were waiting in the wrong place."

"Why are you here, Charlie?" asked Ciel, stepping closer. Judging by the number of fish already gutted, Charlie was doing a neat and quick job. Unfortunately, judging by the looks of his hands and the knife lying untouched on the table, he was using his own nails as cutting tools.

"I counted two and two together," Charlie said in a conversational tone, as he worked away. "Thought you'd come here. Thought I'd come too and provide some answers. _If_ you want to hear them."

"If I want?" asked Sebastian incredulously. "Charlie, I've been trying to wring some useful information from you for days."

"Please," said Alba. "Have a seat. Charlie has already provided for his cousin and himself. Ciel, would you like some cocoa?"

"Wrrrgh," said Ciel, staring at the table.

"Of course he does," Charlie replied in his stead. He finished with his fish and put it in the basket with the others.

"Allow me," said Sebastian, moving a cloth with a flourish over the table. Where it passed, the traces of Charlie's gross occupation were removed.

Reluctantly, Ciel sat on the chair at the far end of the table. Sebastian slipped on the bench beside the little oven, feeling safer with his back to the wall.

Ciel accepted his cocoa. He put his palms around the cup, savoring the warmth.

"Your story, Charlie, he reminded.

"Let's get comfy first." Charlie pushed a small bowl containing something undefinable green toward Sebastian. "For you. As Alba said: I provided for us."

Sebastian looked at the oily, wet, dark-green leaves. "What's that?"

"Seaweed," said Charlie, picking a leaf and putting it in his mouth. "Go ahead. Try some."

"Why should I eat something as disgusting as that?"

"Coming to that in a minute." Charlie leaned back. "Let's see. How do I start? Maybe like this: About two years ago, I traveled on a sailing ship that got caught in a storm. We thought we'd sink. But instead we were washed ashore on this island. I don't deny it may have had something to do with my being aboard. As you probably guessed by now, this is not just some kind of rock in the vastness of sea that one can look up in the sea maps and set sail for."

"You can skip the background story," said Ciel. "Elfin already told me as much, and I filled Sebastian in on it on our way here."

"Okay." Charlie looked a bit surprised. "You really want to look into things, don't you? For me, it took almost one year to find out."

"Our motivations are different, I guess."

"Definitely. When a classy girl like Aglaia asks me to become her companion in life and, er, other places, I don't question her reasons for keeping twelve bedrooms." Charlie helped himself to another leaf of seaweed and chewed it. "So I lived on this island, happily. I was aware that I had forgotten things. But I didn't care. I told myself that I could always remember, as soon as I chose to give it more than a half-hearted effort. One day, Elfin arrived. Soon, it became quite obvious that this little siren had a serious crush on him. And that her feelings were returned. It was also clear that Aglaia wouldn't consent - and that they would carry on with their affair nevertheless, pointless though it seemed. The supernatural and the mortal, determined to stand up and defy the odds. That sounded some chord - "

"Charlie endeavored to talk to the Lady Aglaia in our favor," said Elfin. "He asked her to set Alba free. The lady was quite upset. In the course of what followed Charlie regained his full memory of his own girl waiting for him in London."

"In the course of what followed?" asked Sebastian.

"Okay," said Charlie, lowering his voice. He leaned forward on his elbows as if his next words were meant for Sebastian only. "This is the part where we get to the nasty stuff. You see, it's pretty easy to make a human forget things. In most cases, it's just a minor mental adjustment. Amnesia comes down like a veil. There's not much they can do about it even if they realize something's not right. Of course some will go crazy, but the average mortal adapts." Charlie's gleaming red eyes bore into Sebastian's. "With our kind, Sebastian, things are different. We are not easily tampered with, and above all we usually notice any attempt in that direction. It's no good, just pulling off some mental tricks. In fact, it's even pretty downright suicidal, given our temper and powers. So, what you need to do is mess with our brains on a physical level. - Alba?" He looked up, giving her the cue which she took up readily.

"My sisters' voices can severe a person's cinematic records from their root in the solar plexus," Alba said. "And I don't mean in a metaphorical sense. Their song bursts vessels and ruptures tissue. Their voices leave physical wounds that are re-opened every time the demon tries to access his memories. I say 'the demon', because we've only ever done it to demons. I don't think a human would survive."

"Internal injury," said Ciel. "That's why Sebastian starts hemorrhaging every time he's prompted to recall something from our past."

"It certainly explains a lot," said Sebastian. "And it gives reason for more concern. A physical wound doesn't take well to being re-opened time and again." He looked at Charlie, trying to gauge the other demon's secret knowledge on the matter. "Charlie? Let's not beat around the bush. In how bad a way am I?"

"You're even worse," said Charlie, shrugging, "But there's a cure." He leaned back and gave the bowl a casual push. "It's quite simple, but it's also a little unpleasant. That's why I'd really like you to get some of those seaweeds down you, Sebastian."

Sebastian wasn't in the mood to assume even remotely that there should be anything like a simple solution to his present jam. He eyed the leaves with open suspicion. "They're poisonous?"

"Don't be silly," said Charlie impatiently. "If I wanted to seriously harm you I'd start talking about a certain mansion that's been your home for the past couple of years - "

"Sebastian," said Ciel quickly. "Unlikely as it seems, I do believe this time he's trying to help. He's been through - whatever it is these leaves do to heal you." He cast Charlie a dark glance. "And he's been eating them now, before our eyes."

"But - "

"That wasn't a suggestion, Sebastian," said Ciel. "That was an order."

"Yes, mylord." Unhappy, Sebastian fished a leaf from the bowl and tasted it. He chose another leaf and munched that too. He didn't look like he enjoyed his snack, but he wasn't choking on it either.

"So, how are those leaves going to help?" asked Ciel of Charlie. "Should I eat some too?"

"You? No. This is for demons," said Charlie. "I've learned the hard way that the next step is better faced in a relaxed state."

"Relaxed state?" Suddenly suspicious, Ciel studied the demon's face. It was true: Charlie's slitted pupils were a little dilated and his eyes had a strange, glassy look to them. But the room was dimly lit, so Ciel had thought nothing of it.

"I appreciate your concerned stare," said Charlie. "But I'm okay. Just a little sacrifice I had to make. To convince my cousin that it was safe for him to eat that stuff."

Alarmed, Ciel turned to Sebastian. Charlie talked on, "Well, I didn't convince him. I convinced _you_, which was just as good."

"But why?" asked Ciel, watching Sebastian's eyes become wide and vacant.

"Don't worry, cubby. It's probably poisonous for you, but only a mildly sedating effect on someone like us," explained Charlie.

As if in deliberate defiance of his statement, Sebastian collapsed sideways.

"_Mildly sedative_?" asked Ciel.

"Of course, on an empty stomach it's probably more like a golden death scythe to your brain," admitted Charlie. "Well, what do you say? I told him it was important that he eat something."

"His game is usually a dirty one," said Ciel, irritably. "But yours is downright sordid."

"You know your problem? After all this time you still expect there to be at least _some_ rules." Charlie circled the table, grabbed Sebastian's arm and pulled. Sebastian stumbled to his feet and further, against Charlie's shoulder. He stared at Charlie as if he wanted to say something but couldn't remember what it was.

Charlie began to steer him toward the bedchamber.

"Sorry, Elfin, but your bed is needed once again," he said, as he hauled his burden through the door.

Elfin was already pushing aside cushions. "That's alright; he's our guest. But help me remember, Charlie: How long did it take you to recover? Two days?"

"Naah," said Charlie, shaking his head lightly. "I was okay by midday. I just liked the way you two fawned over me." He let Sebastian slide onto the bed, then stood looking down at him doubtfully. "Of course, I hadn't been living on a three-years-diet then. Sebastian? What are you doing?"

Propped up against a cushion, Sebastian had produced his silver pocket watch and studied it with utmost concentration. With a flick of his wrist he turned it into a black rose. Flicking again: a pocket watch. _Rose. Pocket watch. _

_Rose._

Charlie frowned. "Stop that."

"Why?" _Pocket watch._

"Because I say so."

Defiant, Sebastian looked at his cousin and flicked his wrist again.

Charlie leaned over briskly, took the long-stemmed rose and put it in a pitcher on the bedside table. As he balanced over Sebastian, the recumbent demon raised his knee and kicked him viciously in the stomach. Charlie yelped and pulled the cushion out from behind Sebastian's back. Sebastian's head hit the bed post with a loud cracking noise. It didn't even make him blink.

Ciel and Elfin watched from safe distance next to the door.

"Okay, so he is relaxed," said Ciel, desperate to see the practical side of it. "What comes next?"

"We'll set Djoo to work." Elfin produced the small starfish-shaped box and flipped open the lid. "You see, every person's memories are saved on mysterious things called - "

"Cinematic records. I know," said Ciel. "I've dealt with shinigami before."

Elfin offered the little jelly creature a finger. Djoo grabbed it and, like before, let it- or himself be dragged upward and out of the box.

"Well, Djoo is a special creature," said Elfin. "He feeds on defective cinematic records while re-connecting the intact parts to the conscious mind. Like a maggot nibbling away the gangrenous tissue, if you don't resent the image. He'll patch up Sebastian in no time. Of course, what he takes will be gone for good. But he's too small to cause real gaps - "

"Hand him over already, Elfin," Charlie cut in. He had gone to a crouch beside the bed and managed to force some water on Sebastian. Watching Sebastian drink from the pitcher with the rose sticking up beside his ear, Charlie held out his hand behind his back and signaled with his fingers. Elfin stepped forward and put Djoo onto the demon's palm. Sebastian lowered the pitcher to see what the human was up to, and Charlie flicked Djoo in his face. Grabbing for the swaying pitcher, he said quickly, "It's okay, Sebastian. This is part of part two of the help I promised."

Sebastian squinted at the throbbing little thing on his nose. He seemed more curious than alarmed. "Is it alive?"

"Definitely."

Having oriented himself, Djoo stretched himself very long and very thin and slid into Sebastian's nose. There was a smacking, slimy sound as the last tendril vanished.

"Let me get this straight," Sebastian said wonderfully collected, looking at his nose. "You just made something alive and slimy go up my nose."

"His name is Djoo," said Charlie. He sat on the edge of the bed now, ready to stop any violent reaction on Sebastian's part. He knew from experience that the sensation of Djoo slithering down into one's solar plexus could drive a demon to trying to claw out his own heart.

Sebastian still squinted at his nose.

A handful of seconds ticked by.

"Sebastian?" Charlie asked cautiously. "Is it just possible that you're too stoned to realize what happened?"

"You got me distracted, then made something slimy go up my nose," said Sebastian calmly. "It's name is Djoo. You promised an unpleasant experience that I'd better faced drugged, and feeling Djoo wiggle in my sinuses I really think you had a point."

"Thanks. I'm glad you're not mad at me."

"Why should I be mad at you?" asked Sebastian. "Will Djoo kill my body? Hurt me? Terminate my very existence?"

"Of course not."

"Point is: I'm too relaxed to care if he did." Sebastian laid down, looked about and lazily reached out his hand for the pitcher. "To be honest, I'm more worried about this rose."

"The rose?" asked Charlie. This conversation was taking an unexpected course.

Sebastian took the flower between two fingers. "Do you think it remembers being a silver pocket watch, once?"

"What if it does?"

"This rose needs water to live. My pocket watch, one the other hand, wasn't waterproof."

"Your point...?"

"My point? Maybe this rose has an instinctive fear of water, and yet it needs to be stuck in a pitcher." Sebastian turned the rose between his fingers. "Just image the deviousness, Charlie. The horror. The abomination. Nature clashing with instinct. I created a monster – " Sebastian looked into Charlie's face. It was deadly serious.

"I - " Sebastian said.

Charlie's face, he realized, was deadly serious in a way that suggested that the demon was inwardly rolling on the floor, kicking the air and howling.

"I'm not making much sense, am I?" Sebastian asked, suddenly sobered.

"Careful with that rose," said Charlie, smiling. "You might want to turn it back into a watch later."

" 'Later' being the operative word." Sighing, Sebastian handed the flower over. "Compliments on your seaweeds, Charlie. I haven't been so high since – well, I don't remember."

"I do," said Charlie. "The trouble we had getting you off that mountain cross before lightning could strike."

"Feels like it did now," mumbled Sebastian. "_Phut!_ Only a puff of smoke left."

"Then drift off." Smiling, Charlie put his hand on Sebastian's brow. Sebastian frowned a little, then he surrendered. Before long, he drew a deep breath and, turning his head on the cushion, moved a hand to his chest. It was clearly the movement of someone feeling a vague pain but being too fast asleep to be roused by it.

"That's it," whispered Elfin. "Let's call it a day. I will make you a bed in the kitchen, my lord, and then - "

"No. I've got something to ask - "Ciel stepped toward the bed. "Charlie?"

"Yes?" asked Charlie, distractedly.

"What was that about a mountain cross?" whispered Ciel.

"It's been – oh, fifty, maybe sixty years." Charlie still sat with his hand on Sebastian's head, looking down as if to make sure he wasn't going to be attacked. "The poor bugger of a human really thought he had a chance. He'd conceived the idea watching some theater play where a guy cheats death playing chess and consuming local liqueurs with him. Just the kind of story people in Vienna seem never to get enough of. – Shhh. It's only me, messing with some stray hairs of yours." Pausing with the back of his left fingers on Sebastian's cheekbone, Charlie waited until his cousin's eyes closed again.

"Charlie?" whispered Ciel. "Vienna? What happened?"

"Hm?" Warily, Charlie resumed smoothing out the black strands. "Oh - I think, it's quite possible my cousin flunked at the game of chess. Ended up with a stalemate or something. But there was no way he could be diverted from the soul that was his by contract."

"He devoured his master?"

"To an effect no-one of us had seen coming." Charlie smiled at Sebastian with the affection of a brother recalling his younger sibling's foolishness. "We caught up with him in the middle of a snowstorm, on the summit of a mountain. He was clinging to the cross, high as heaven, and singing dirty tavern songs at the top of his lungs. It was a sight to die for. Lucrezia nearly laughed her head off, and one of the twins slipped and fell into a crevice, adding to my problems."

"Your problems?" said Ciel, doubtfully.

"There is a vow. Last one standing gets the other out. I always kept my side of that bargain." Charlie leaned forward to whisper in Sebastian's ear. "Remember what I said when I had you safely down in the snow? _I'm sorry. I should've warned you. But I had no idea it would affect you quite like that_."

There was no response. Charlie continued his brotherly watch, softly playing with Sebastian's hair.

"You really care about him, don't you?" asked Ciel.

Charlie guffawed. "Like one wolf to the other," he said firmly. "Believe it or not but we are beasts, him, me, the twins, even Lucrezia, beautiful, volatile Lucrezia. Beasts to the core, all of us."

"I know that," said Ciel. "But I - "

"You don't know shit, cubby," said Charlie, softly but with feeling. "About how it feels, being long-lived and bored. Looking for ways to kill time in a world teeming with short-lived creatures like yourself that are here and gone in a wink. Some of us turn to seaweeds and poison dart frogs. Others make contracts to keep in touch with the world. Most of us are lonely riders. I've never been one of them. I mean, what's the damned point? At the end of the day there's only us. And if we don't have each other, then what do we have?" Charlie looked down at Sebastian, who frowned a little in his sleep and clutched at his chest. "So, yes. I care about him. But it doesn't stop me from treading on his nerves just the same, or from playing sordid games, or messing with his contractees and giving them a piece of reality to chew on. - You look particularly like you're about to choke, cubby."

"I'm okay." Ciel gulped. "I just never looked at it this way."

"Well, and why should you? Life's hard enough the way you know it," said Charlie airily, and changed the subject. "Djoo's got what he needs, now. Bits of elementary sustenance to mend the physical damage and some quiet in there to do it. As soon as he's finished, Sebastian's body will heal, and when that's over and done, he'll come around by himself." He got to his feet and looked sternly at Ciel. "Cubby, if you tell him I apologized, you're dead. And I mean 'dead', like a dodo in an Indian curry. 'Dead' like myself, if Lucrezia should ever learn I called her 'volatile' in front of a human. Get the idea?"

"I guess so," said Ciel, smiling darkly. "Vicious beasts. My lips are sealed. Where are you going?"

"Back to the palace." Charlie stretched, hands stemmed against the small of his back. "I'll have to come up with a convincing story to explain our absence." He prepared to step through the wall, standing on one leg and swinging the other as if assessing the thickness of the obstacle.

Ciel fought a silent battle within, then he called, "Hey, Charlie?"

The demon's head and upper body reappeared inside, "Hm?"

"Thanks for giving me that piece of reality, and - " The words were hard to get out. Ciel hadn't expressed genuine feelings in a long time, " - I'm sure he cares about you, too."

"Wolves in a pack, boy. We're of one breed." Charlie's white-toothed smile penetrated the gloom. "Make no mistake: You are the prey."

* * *

Ciel spent the night on a makeshift bed Elfin prepared for him on the kitchen bench. Alba seemed to have left the house, which did not come as too great a surprise. The sirens in the palace often disappeared once the sun had gone down.

Elfin had insisted on staying awake in case Sebastian required assistance. Whatever assistance a mortal could give to a demon.

Silently, Ciel decided that Elfin was just nervous of what the demon might do, if Sebastian started to wander about before he was fully back in his senses.

He himself awoke only one time: The room was filled with faint light, the dawn of morning. The storm had ceased somewhat, and at first Ciel thought that he'd been aroused by the silence.

Then he saw Elfin. The sailor stooped over the kitchen table and whispered softly to something hidden behind his big hands. Ciel glimpsed the starfish-shaped box and knew that Djoo had finished his work.

"Sebastian?" he asked, still drowsy and half-dreaming.

"He's fine," replied Elfin. "Go back to sleep. He did, too."

But when Ciel woke up about an hour later, rested and alert, he knew immediately that the demon was awake, too. Something had told him, and looking over to the open bedroom door he tried to remember what it was.

"Oh dear," said Sebastian's voice again.

Neither Elfin nor Alba were in the house. Ciel unwrapped his wool blanket and padded over to the door.

Sebastian sat on the bed. He wore a tail suit, white shirt, a tie, gloves and polished, flat-heeled shoes.

"Oh dear," he said a third time, sounding deeply grieved.

"Sebastian?" asked Ciel cautiously.

The demon turned to him, and his voice instantly became more lively. "Young master. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. How about you?"

Sebastian held up a pocket watch on a silver chain. It was dripping water.

"I," said Sebastian with feeling, "am going to kill him."

"Indeed," said Ciel.

" - if that's what my young master wishes me to do," Sebastian added smoothly. He slid off the bed and went to one knee in front of Ciel.

"Young master. The memory of the past days makes me shiver with embarrassment. How can you ever forgive me?"

This time, Ciel realized, his butler's heart was in every single word.

And he smiled.

+++ End of Chapter 5 +++

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A/N: Once again, I read my own chapter and wonder at how it turned out. There was supposed to be a lot of sentimental talk between Ciel and Sebastian (and worry, and late-night-watches) and *no Charlie at all*! But then, our friends arrived at the house, and, being the author, I sort of opened the door first and - what do you do, when you find another character already sitting there and just refusing to leave? Giving you the feeling that, in spite of everything you had mapped out in your mind so far, he *knew* what to do, while you, in fact, had nothing but a vague idea.

I chose to hand over control to Charlie. Even though I knew that I could forget my pretty sentimental dialogue. He "gave" me the idea for that scene in Vienna instead. I hope you enjoyed, too. Let's save the sentimentality for some other time - and please *review*. :)


	6. A Secret, Revealed

Hi there. I'm glad you're still with me and reading. I'm sorry I didn't update earlier. I got distracted with another idea, a very forceful idea that needed to be written down immediately. And besides, to be honest, I'm a little afraid of ending this story. After it is done, I will probably never get back to writing Sebastian/Charlie dialogue again, and I just love them interacting. I don't think canon will ever have another demon that is neither the enemy, not exactly a friend, but even if they did, the story just couldn't use two supernaturals that are more or less on the same side. This is a prerogative of fanfic, and so far I made ample use of it. Thanks for following me along.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

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+++Chapter 6: A Secret, revealed+++

"I'm not sure this is the wisest course of action" Ciel said as Sebastian and he sneaked through the palace corridors. "I mean, I am more convinced than ever that Charlie has all the answers to our questions. If he wanted he probably could have departed days ago. We should simply leave. See where that leads us. Maybe pass them a note through Alba."

"Like the note you left on their kitchen table?" Sebastian stopped behind a corner to let a couple of sailors pass.

"I have no idea where they could've gone to or when they will return," said Ciel, following as Sebastian walked on. "Now that we both know where we're going, we should set off as soon as possible."

"If there wasn't this little fact of your being too curious to leave without putting your theory regarding Charlie's sincerity to the test."

Sebastian's irony made Ciel bristle, "How about you? You seemed to like the idea of saying goodbye to Josy and your cousin instead of sneaking out on them."

"I'm glad for the opportunity to check on them one last time," said Sebastian. "Make sure Miss Josy is okay."

"Since when do you care about a human that is not I?"

Sebastian turned, mockery in his eyes, "Is the young master jealous?"

"Don't be silly. I'm worried by your strange behavior, that's all. There's something about this girl that makes you and Charlie lose your heads just like she was a cat in disguise. I'm sorry to say so, but it makes me doubt your loyalty, sort of."

"The young master can order me any time to leave this island with him, and I will obey," said Sebastian stiffly, adding softly, "However, I'd rather you don't..."

Ciel gave his demon a questioning look. Then he raised his hand and knocked at the door of Josy's room. "Josy? Charlie? It's us. Can we come in?"

No response.

"Can you sense them, Sebastian?"

"Miss Josy is definitely behind this door. Charlie's not present."

Ciel rapped again, more urgently. "Josy? Are you okay? Come on, let us in."

"Go away," Josy said from inside.

"What's with your voice? Are you crying?" Ciel didn't know what to make of this situation and shook the door. "Last warning. If you don't open the door, I'll have Sebastian break it down."

No response.

"Josy? I'm serious. I'll count to three. One - "

No response.

"Two..."

"Charlie is not with you, is he?" asked Josy.

"Er – no, he isn't."

"Seriously, Ciel? It's only you and Sebastian?"

"Yes. Yes! Why do you ask?"

The key was turned. Ciel pushed the handle and entered. The room was a mess. Broken glass and porcelain littered the floor. The bed had been stripped of all cushions that now lay on the floor, too. A large mirror had been smashed, and the knick-knack removed from boards and tables. Josy sat in the middle of destruction on the edge of her bed. As Ciel looked on, she started to cry in her cupped hands, as she had doubtlessly done for some time before the pair's arrival.

The curious thing was, Ciel realized, the position of the shards and cushions and knick-knack looked as if someone had thrown all those items at someone trying to enter.

"What happened, Josy?" Ciel asked.

A stream of lowest East End tavern cursing answered his inquiry. The word 'bastard' prevailed. Before long, Ciel understood that Josy had not razed her room to fling things at some intruder. She had grabbed anything within reach to hurl at her demonic fiancée, successfully driving him out. The idea of a slender person like her working up such determination and energy was amazing. Even Sebastian seemed sort of impressed.

Ciel ventured to sit beside the sobbing girl. "Okay, so I get it that Charlie's a dirty, rotten, two-faced bastard whom you will throttle with your bare hands next time you two meet. But what did he _do_?"

Josy strove to regain her bearings, then said, "Do you remember telling me that you couldn't sleep because of Charlie and me being too noisy?"

"Sure."

"Ciel, we didn't spend that evening together."

"Ah," said Ciel, and then added, "Oh", when understanding followed.

"That day, I was outside with the other girls," said Josy. "Talking, listening to music. When I finally came back, I had a bad conscience about having stayed away so long. But Charlie told me it was okay. I was so stupid! I even thought he was handling it so great, you know, not being possessive or anything..." Now, she didn't look like she was about to cry her eyes out. Now, she looked ready to commit daemonicide and enjoy it. "He didn't need to be possessive, because it was fine by him that I was out of the way."

"Er," said Ciel who felt more and more at a loss with and embarrassed by this kind of relationship problems, "and who did he spend the evening with?"

"That's what I asked of him when he returned this morning," said Josy. "I knew, of course. I'm not blind. I know Charlie's been on this island before, and I noticed the way this so-called lady looks at him. I just had to hear from his own mouth, I guess. I don't know. I'm such a stupid bitch. Maybe I could've accepted an honest answer and still played along."

"I deduce that his answer was not what you had expected to hear?" Ciel said.

"I wanted an _honest_ answer. But he couldn't even muster as much decency. He claimed to have spend the night with you two.' Josy gestured at the things on the floor. 'That's when I threw him out."

"But he was telling the truth," said Ciel. "He really did spend the night with Sebastian and me."

"That's kinda good to hear." Josy pouted, "But I still threw him out."

"Do you know where he is now?"

Josy shook her head, "We didn't get to discuss our next steps after the pretty conches and silver ware and cushions started flying."

Ciel got up and somehow expected her to follow his example. She didn't.

"Aren't you going to come and help us look for him? Now that you know he was being honest?"

"I couldn't care less about that twit's whereabouts," Josy said, eyes turning suspiciously glassy and red again. "It's probably good for him to stay out of my way for some more time. Like, for the rest of my mortal life."

Ciel regarded her silently, then said, "Listen, Josy. Sebastian and I intend to leave this island. You once said you liked it here, but as things are - do you want to come with us?"

She considered this. "Sure. Just have to – a little errand to run.'

"Don't say goodbye to people", Ciel warned. "They would probably try to hinder us leaving."

Josy smiled grimly, "Don't worry. I'm not saying goodbye. It will take only a minute."

"We'll pick you up here," said Ciel, wondering what she could possibly be up to. "Sebastian? Let's go find your cousin."

* * *

They didn't have to search very long or very far. Either Sebastian could sense the other demon's presence, or he knew his cousin intimately enough to take a random guess as to his patterns of behavior.

"That's Ramón's room," said Ciel, when Sebastian led him to the hall that held the giant squid's pond.

"Yes, and Charlie's in there with him," said Sebastian, as he cautiously opened the door.

Ciel peered past his butler: The room seemed in perfect order, except for some forgotten pieces of rubble on the floor that told of the night's fight. The window that had been Ciel's escape route was open, showing a patch of blue sky. Cool morning air filled the room. Ramón sat in his pond, tentacles curled up, like a curious, huge bird perched on its nest. Every now and then he'd cringe a little, due to a small missile like a paper clip flying and hitting his bulk at random spots.

At the other end of the small missiles' trajectory sat Charlie with his back propped against a column and his knees drawn up. He gave a picture of grumpy listlessness as he kept pulling pebbles out of his pocket and tossing them at the Beast of the Last Days. Ciel noted the chewed-on seaweed in the hand the demon did not use to pester the unhappy squid.

"Charlie," said Sebastian, swiftly stepping over and leaving his master to stand in the door. He knelt in front of his cousin. Charlie looked up for the briefest moment. Then he recommenced tossing pebbles.

"You realize you've become pathetic when you find yourself answering to a name that was given to you by mortals," he mused darkly.

"I'm not here to discuss philosophy with you," Sebastian said. "I came to tell you the young master and I are leaving."

"Can't say I care."

"Charlie, I cannot leave when Miss Josy and you are practically on the verge of breaking up. You know I can't. Not these days."

"Careful what you say, cousin." Charlie pointed to the door, but without real emotion. "Cubby's pricking up his ears and getting jealous."

"I really hoped to find you in a mood where we could discuss things reasonably." Sebastian made little beckoning movements behind his back. Ciel frowned. He wasn't sure whether he was supposed to take some action – and if so, then what kind of action?

Then, he noticed the movement in the squid's pond: Answering to Sebastian's call, Ramón started to uncurl his limbs. Once more, Ciel realized in amazement how silent the huge beast moved.

A tentacle rippled closer and fastened itself around Charlie's ankle, just as the demon told his cousin to bloody mind his own business.

"I am minding my business," Sebastian told Charlie calmly, getting to his feet. "You love referring to our old promise and how you've kept your word to this day. But I was there too, you know. I took the same vow: '_Last one standing gets the other out'_." He took a little step to the side. "Well, the one of us standing, that'll be me for now, I guess."

Pulling back with a sudden jerk, Ramón threw Charlie off balance and sent him slithering swiftly across the floor.

"_Heyyy!_" Charlie's scream was muffled when the giant squid plunged him into the pond. Yet, the demon managed to grab hold of the edge and pulled himself up, "Seba – _agh!_"

He was plunged again.

Now, Ramón's full set of tentacles came to bear and the conversation had to be crammed in the short intervals, when Charlie's head was above the water:

"What _aarrr_- ?"

" - go of me, you stupid - "

" - trying to kill me?"

Yes. Ramón obviously had something like that on his mind. Charlie remained under water, his voice rising to the surface along with the bubbles of his last breath.

Sebastian flipped open his pocket watch, waiting.

"I'm glad to see your pocket watch back in working order, but shouldn't we do something?" Ciel asked, when he had conveniently counted to ten since the last bubble had burst.

"Of course we should. - Let's give him three more minutes," his butler said and went back to checking the dial of his watch.

Eventually, he decided that enough time had passed. Smiling evilly, he stepped on to the edge of the pond and tapped his knuckle against Ramón's tentacle. "Let him go, Ramón. He should be sufficiently sober by now. Oh, and will you please show him, where 'up' is? That would be nice, thank you."

Four seconds later, Charlie's drenched hand and sleeve appeared. He hauled himself out of the water and rolled over on his side on the floor, coughing and choking.

"You don't have to breathe, so cut it out," Sebastian told him without much sympathy. He had produced a small box which he opened with one hand, stooping and gathering up some of Charlie's seaweed in the other. It had been Ciel's idea to bring Djoo. He remembered Josy's observation that Charlie miraculously didn't seem struck with the same affliction that had Sebastian firmly in its claws - the problem of starting to bleed whenever someone mentioned something about his assumedly forgotten past.

And he wanted to find out just how much damage was there for the little starfish to mend.

Ciel nodded at his butler, "Do it, Sebastian."

"Do what?" Charlie's eyes went wide as he saw the little wobbling starfish right in front of his nose.

"Your turn to regain your mind." Sebastian hurled Djoo into Charlie's face.

"Gyaah! Get it off me!" Charlie was up in a flash and grabbed at the little creature.

Sebastian watched with a certain air of grim satisfaction about his person. His smile, however, faded when Charlie pulled the jelly starfish off his nose and flung it to the ground. Dazed, Djoo crawled towards Ciel, who stooped and took the little creature on his hand. For lack of a transport box, he suffered Djoo slide up his sleeve.

"But why didn't he go up your nose?" asked Sebastian.

"Maybe because there's nothing to mend in my brains? Has that idea ever occurred to you?" shouted Charlie, enraged.

"I thought so," mumbled Ciel. "Not sharing all his information... but Josy certainly knows her man..."

Sebastian was not yet ready to give up, "But you must be manipulated," he insisted. "When the sirens sang to us on the ship of your wedding ceremony, their voices affected us both. You're not immune. And you said it was all part of Lady Aglaia's scheme to make us stay."

"Correction," snapped Charlie, fuming. "It was part of her scheme to make YOU stay."

"Me?"

"She knew you'd resist. To be honest - " Charlie broke off suddenly. His fury had evaporated.

"I appreciate your being honest," said Sebastian gently. "It happens much too seldom. Go ahead, Charlie. What was it you wanted to be honest about?"

"Er, look, can't we just call it off here. Slimey here didn't want to slide up my nose, so there's nothing to worry about, and - "

"Charlie," said Sebastian, "The Lady Aglaia? Scheming to make me stay?"

"Er, I told her. Said, you'd probably want to go back to your contract as soon as you remembered. She'd have to come up with something very convincing."

"So it was both of you, conspiring. Now, why doesn't that surprise as much as it should? - And," asked Sebastian, very friendly, "what she came up with was... ?"

"Yeah, well, she nearly wrenched your brains out. Sorry for that." Charlie frowned. "Sebastian? I really don't like that look on your fa- argh!"

Sebastian's smile was still on, and it stayed on, even as he moved in for the kill.

It happened almost too fast for Ciel to see. One second, it was only Sebastian standing there. Next, he had something solid and long in his hand, and in a fluent movement he swung it back and forward, stabbing his cousin right through the heart. Charlie toppled backwards like a felled tree. His heels pounded the floor, his nails left scars in the stone tiles. He glared up at Sebastian, and it was obvious he would've had a lot to say about ambushing a fellow demon, if only he weren't choking on his own blood.

But his struggle lasted only for a few seconds. Finally, he lay still, in that eerie silence that only the truly dead can display.

The truly dead - or a demon, pretending to join their ranks. Ciel harbored serious doubts. Until he saw the weapon his butler had used. Sebastian threw his tool on his cousin's body: It was the young shinigami's landing net death scythe, the one the demons had taken away from the green-eyed youth as they played their game of cat-and-mouse with him. The bamboo handle was splintered and bloodied.

"You killed him." Ciel stepped forward, his eyes on the corpse. "You really killed him this time."

"Yes, I did," said Sebastian. "And I must say, I should've done so much earlier. Very liberating."

"I guess this means our departure will be delayed." Ciel ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "I wonder what Josy is going to say to this."

A shrill scream seemed to answer him, although no one was near.

Ciel and Sebastian exchanged glances. Then, leaving Charlie's body in Ramón's custody, they bolted. They met sirens in the corridor, and ordinary folks. All had been alerted by the scream that seemed to have come from Lady Aglaia's private suite.

The door was open, and through it, female voices could be heard. They were fighting.

Turning the corner, Ciel and the others found themselves in a dressing room. Clothes lay on the floor, and a chair was toppled over. In the far corner, Josy stood in front of the Lady Aglaia, whose hair was in disarray like she had been surprised in the process of getting her curls done. A couple of siren maids huddled in another corner, too scared to try and help their mistress. Josy's entry must've been an impressive one.

Even now, the bar maid radiated fury as she threatened the ruler of this place with something – something... Ciel looked hard until he realized what it was: The comb made of mother-of-pearl Josy had worn in her hair for her wedding ceremony. Wielded in a determined hand, it made a formidable weapon that could deal serious damage to a pretty face.

"I want you off this island," said Lady Aglaia now, in a voice that sounded like she'd come to the conclusion of an extended argument. "I don't care what he says. You will be gone by - "

"Start singing, and I might cut your throat," hissed Josy, moving the comb against the white skin. The sirens moved uneasily, their clothes making sounds like rustling feathers.

"Stop her, Sebastian," said Ciel out of the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, mylord." But the demon seemed curiously reluctant simply to walk up to the girl, disarm her and pull her away from her prey. Instead, he approached her quietly, softly calling her name, "Miss Josy?"

She started to turn, and Sebastian quickly stepped forward and took her head between his hands.

"Easy," he warned, holding her gently but firmly. "Don't move unless you figured out, how..."

"Sebastian?" Josy looked up at him. Her eyes were wide, rather surprised than scared. And gleaming demonic red.

People gasped, and took half-steps backwards. Ciel's mind raced: What the heck was going on?

"I want her gone," the Lady Aglaia raged. "It was insanity, allowing a woman on to this island. That maid, Alba, and her human lover, I want them to prepare a boat. I assign them with the task of taking the woman back to where she came from. You – and you," she pointed at a couple of sirens, "escort her to her room. Where's Charlie? I want to have a word with him."

"I am afraid that will not be possible, my lady," said Sebastian.

"Alright, so you will stay with her. Make sure she's no more trouble in her - present - condition."

Guarded by the sirens, Sebastian and Josy walked toward the door, picking up Ciel as they passed him by. The demon and the girl were conferring quietly:

"I don't want to be of any trouble, Sebastian," Josy said, "But I'm not sure what's happening."

"You got mad," Sebastian told her. "That was both, a signal and an opportunity for her."

"A signal? For what?" said Ciel, irritably that no one seemed to care to explain.

"For Charlie's daughter to make contact," said Sebastian patiently.

Ciel gaped, "Charlie's _what_?"

"A girl?" said Josy, slightly starting up, just as Sebastian said levelly, "Young master, Josy is pregnant."

"What? All this time?" Ciel said perplexed, and immediately felt quite stupid.

But Sebastian merely deadpanned, "Exactly seven weeks and two days, young master."

"How would you know?" Josy was stunned. "I mean, so far I wasn't really sure about it myself."

"You could've asked Charlie," Sebastian said. "Or me. It's something about a woman's scent. It changes with pregnancy, brings out a delightful note. Charlie probably could tell from about day two or three, and I knew as soon as you stood before me aboard your wedding ship."

"That second 'hello'," Ciel said, remembering his butler's absorbed gaze. "You weren't stunned by Josy's outfit. You were referring to the child."

"After all, I'm sort of her uncle," Sebastian said, not without pride.

"So that's why Charlie and you've been so crazy about Josy ever since we came here!"

"Caring for one's young is a strong instinct in most species," said Sebastian. "Do you remember my cousin's reaction when we met? The 'going-through-the-roof' as you called it?" He snickered in his fist. "The problem with being a predator is that you can't stop seeing the potential hungry beastliness in almost everyone else. He didn't want me to be near her for fear of what I might do."

"Well, after all, you're one of a kind," said Ciel. "And now I also see why you, Josy, knew so much detail about children's teeth, and how, and when they get replaced by the permanent set."

"Well, you pick up one thing or another preparing to become a proficient parent," Josy said.

"And it explains why the siren's voices couldn't make you forget all about the immediate past," Ciel continued, feeling like he was running on the finishing stretch to full understanding. "Okay, so you forgot just like I did. But the little demon brat inside you remembered. They would've needed to temper with her cinematic records to change that. How did she inform you? Don't tell me she already talks."

"She's conveying meanings," said Sebastian. "She let Miss Josy know everything about the marriage and the subsequent kidnapping by Ramón. Of course, she's got only a limited perception, and lacking the experience and the words, she could not make sense of everything. But her mother was able to fill in most of the detail. Already they are quite a team."

Josy smiled, "Thanks."

"But just a few minutes ago she took over Josy's body," said Ciel, horrified.

"Oh, nooo, it wasn't that extreme," mumbled Josy, cringing a little.

And Sebastian said, "It's more like she took advantage of an impulse that was already there. Miss Josy was very worked up and excited. Our kind are pretty good at spotting and enhancing such things in a human."

They passed by Ramón's room.

Ciel said, "Will it happen every time, Josy gets excited during her pregnancy? Just asking."

"I don't think so," said Sebastian. "Miss Josy will learn to deal with her child like she found a way to deal with my cousin."

"Speaking of Charlie," said Ciel, stopping in front of the door, "There's something you should know, Josy. And I do hope you're a fast learner. Because I'm almost sure you're about to get very worked up now..."

+++End of Chapter 6+++


	7. Wishful Thinking, Overturned

Hi, everybody. This took a real long time to finish, and I feel awful about keeping you waiting for so long. It wasn't that I didn't know how to go on with the story. But I found myself in the mood for something more easy-going, I had to take a time-out from gothic darkness. It happens, I guess. Now, I'm back and I'm going to finish, I promise. Not today - it was too much text to put in one chapter - but soon.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

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+++Chapter 7: Wishful Thinking, Overturned +++

_Five minutes_, Ciel had decided. He was going to give Josy five minutes to mourn her lover's strange death that had been stupid and unexpected in every respect.

But seeing her slumped over Charlie's dead body and hearing her unrestrained wailing he wondered if he should put an end to it now.

Even Sebastian seemed uneasy, and, raising his voice, he said, "Miss Josy? I suggest that you try and calm yourself."

"You – " Josy looked up, disbelieving, "you bastard just – you killed my fiancée and now you have the brow to tell me _to calm myself_?!"

"Charlie wouldn't want you to hurt yourself or the child over his demise," Sebastian reasoned.

Josy clutched the splintered death scythe, obviously preparing to tackle him.

"No, he really wouldn't want you to get hurt..." mumbled Sebastian.

"Well," said Ciel, "You surely agree that you surpassed yourself at_ beastliness_, putting a death scythe into your cousin without even giving him a warning."

Sebastian looked hurt and misunderstood, "I kept telling him I would kill him."

"Just as he kept telling you to eat something, and you didn't," Ciel said. "Seems like you never heeded each other's advice much."

"You are not satisfied with me, young master. But when I suggested to you that I might kill Charlie you never showed a distinct reaction..."

"That was when killing him would not have interfered with my immediate plans of leaving this place." Ciel gestured in the direction of the couple.

Looking at the crying girl, Sebastian's expression changed: If he had been allowed to be entirely the demon that had made the contract with the boy in the cage, the demon whose nature was haughty and evil and sarcastic – then that demon would've said, a little irritably, "_Okay. Okay, I get your drift_."

The butler to Earl Phantomhive said, very politely, "Young master? Do you want me to reanimate him now?"

"Reanimate?"

"Say yes." Josy turned around and spontaneously threatened Ciel with the remnants of the death scythe.

"I certainly won't object." Ciel looked at Charlie's pale face and the dead, staring eyes. "I sort of owe him. He was the only demon ever to volunteer information I didn't explicitly ask for."

Sebastian hesitated. "Can we just wait a day or two?" he asked hopefully. "Just to get the lesson across?" But even as he spoke he could read the answer in the humans' faces. Sighing, he hoisted Charlie's body up and flung him – rather carelessly - over his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" asked Ciel.

"These things are traditionally done behind closed doors," said Sebastian. "I think Miss Josy's room will be adequate."

"Do you think he can do it?" asked Josy softly, as they hurried after the demon. "I mean, Charlie's dead, isn't he?"

"Charlie's a demon," said Ciel. "That means he can be summoned through ritual, made to obey through ritual and probably exorcised through ritual. His physical body is but a vessel for his spirit and his mind. So, I guess he can be made to repossess it if the correct ritual is performed."

"I told you before, young master," said Sebastian, who, of course, heard even though Josy and Ciel conferred whispering. "Even if this body were destroyed – "

"You would still stay by my side and follow me to the deepest pits of hell." Ciel thought that he only now started to fathom the true, terrible meaning of these words. But one the other hand, he had only now had the idea about that exorcising part, and it was definitely something to keep in mind...

"Yes..." he mumbled.

"No," said Sebastian.

Ciel looked up, irritably, "How do you know what I was thinking about?"

"I don't. But if the young master looks and smiles at me like that my preferred answer, of course, will always be 'no'." Sebastian stopped in front of Josy's room, one hand on the door knob. "Don't you spy through the keyhole or eavesdrop," he warned. "This is going to be ugly. By human standards."

Josy and Ciel were left outside.

They waited.

Anxious about what was going on inside the door, Josy tried to sneak a hand in the crook of Ciel's arm. He refused to take it.

Still, they waited.

Then – "Josy? Are you okay?" asked Ciel. "Your eyes have started to gleam."

"I'm okay. Something's going on, something powerful. I – no, the little one can sense it."

At that moment, a voice rose behind the closed door. It was unmistakably Charlie's, screaming unarticulately at first, then continuing in a language unknown to Josy and Ciel. They looked at each other. The words were a mystery, but there was no mistaking the tone: Charlie was expressing his anger at having been murdered. He was heaping abuse of the lowest category on a certain demon that was with him in the room, until Sebastian had finally enough:

"Don't give me that," he cut in, loud and clear, in English. "I can't help you're such a proper charlie. Whoever gave you that name surely knew why he chose it. - Now, have you or haven't you regained control over that heart beat of yours?"

Josy couldn't hold back; she reached for the door, Ciel wanted to tell her that it was no use – that Sebastian had probably locked it.

But she threw it open nevertheless, breaking the lock like cardboard, and stormed in.

Ciel followed and took in the scene: Charlie sat on the bloodstained bed, alive and furious. Josy was in his arms. Over her shoulder, he still looked daggers at his cousin. There were bloody handprints on the sheets, on the furniture, up the wall and across the ceiling. The knick-knack that had been lying on the floor by the door where Josy had flung it in her earlier fit of rage was spread all over the room, as if a whirlwind had blown it about. Pillows had ben cut open, and feathers were everywhere. Some settled on Ciel even as he took in the mess. He plucked them off his hair: "Black feathers? In pillows?"

"My apologies, young master." Sebastian took the feathers, breathed on them and released them into the air where they burned up and faded away in wisps of smoke. "But bringing Charlie back this time was a real challenge. I guess the problem was with the death scythe wound..."

"This time? How often have you two killed each other before?"

"After spending what feels like an eternity together? Let's see." Sebastian counted quietly. "I believe, the last time I sucessfully wrang his neck we were stuck in some place high up in the Alps. I remember a lot of snow and a glowing mountain cross towering over us..." He cast down his eyes, conjuring memories, "...and Lucrezia in her saffron gown, angling for something stuck in a crevice..."

"That 'something' was one of the twins down there, and the cross glowed because it had been struck by friggin' lightening about two seconds after I plucked you," Charlie shouted over, angrily. "Could've left you up there to roast. At least that would've scored one for me."

"I see," said Sebastian calmly. "How come you never told me before?"

"I did! Well, I wanted to. - You try speaking with a wrung neck."

"An eternity spent together, and you two still never listen to each other very carefully, do you?" asked Ciel, exasperated. "Well, let's start now. Charlie, you still owe us an explanation why we're here. The whole story, this time. Why you seemed unaffected by the sirens' voices, when Sebastian suffered the full effect of their charm. And I'd like to learn your reasons for allowing them to get us here in the first place."

"I don't see, why I should – "

Three people folded their arms, looking determined to hear an explanation or to work together putting the death scythe back in place.

"Well," Charlie said, "the thing is – of course I was affected again. And the one thing I'm not to blame for is getting abducted by Ramón. I had no hand in that. We arrived here in an unconscious state, all four of us. But since I was the one they were after, I was brought around first. Aglaia was there, of course, wondering who those people in my company were, and I explained it all to her. About my going to get married, and a parent, and all that... You see, she hadn't known about Josy's existence in the first place. She thought that I had left because of our unfortunate quarrel about Alba and her mortal lover. But since the little siren and her man by now lived peacefully in their shack by the sea, she thought the matter settled. And since she expected no problems convincing me to stay with her now, she had not even tried to mess with my memory again. And when she offered me her hospitality again, I accepted it. We reached an agreement that would allow us all to stay here." Charlie looked at Sebastian, "Sorry, again. I thought she'd make you an irresistible offer. A new deal. Something like that."

Sebastian was irritated, "You really thought there was anything – _anything at all_ - you two could offer that would make me abandon my young master?"

"Why not? You said it yourself: You've been stuck with him for three years."

"Charlie? Do you consider _three years_ a long time for being stuck with someone?" asked Josy.

"No, but I took a spontaneous liking to the idea of being stuck on this island. No wild animals, no poisonous plants – "

"Your daughter isn't going to be affected by poison, if that's the idea," said Sebastian. "Oh dear. It_ is_ the idea, I can see it."

" - not even bad weather, if you stay within the magical sphere of the palace grounds – "

"How long, do you think, until she'd figure it out and consider it a great pastime, getting lost in the storm and surf outside?" Sebastian interrupted again, not unfriendly but with the distinct tone of someone who wants to get a message across. "Your daughter is a demon, Charlie._ A brat._ You're worried about animals posing a threat for her? What are you thinking of, sharks, bears, bulls? Armed humans, trying to rob or harm her? Unless you've introduced your cub to some basic standards of conduct – and I'm not even talking about morals here - you should think of a way to protect_ them_. She'll be the strongest, fastest, wildest_ soul-greedy_ little beast to make the mortal world its playground."

"I couldn't be sure about that until I saw Josy break down this door and come at me with glowing eyes five minutes ago," said Charlie, plainly. "Sometimes, they get more from the human side. Then, this island would have been the perfect place to bring her up. But in case she tended more to the demon heritage, I was determined to keep you around, Sebastian. I'm not much of a teacher. I need your experience in dealing with brats."

("Wait a minute," said Ciel, but no-one listened.)

The two demons stood looking each other in the eye. Until Sebastian facepalmed slowly, giving the sound of an extremely haughty, evil, sarcastic creature despairing over the fact that its superior haughtiness and evil is fully acknowledged - but for the wrong intentions.

"Let me get this straight, Charlie," said Josy. "You made provisions to keep us all – me, your cousin, the Earl Phantomhive - on this island because you thought it a perfect place for raising kids. _Our kid. _Thinking about her safety is fine, I guess. But what about me?"

"It's safe for you, too..."

"Maybe it is," said Josy. "But it's also _boring_! And I don't like being in boring places, meeting with boring people, otherwise I wouldn't be dating, on the verge of marrying, _someone like you_ - and I don't like the way things turned out between you and this so-called lady – don't you interrupt me, Charlie – and least of all I like the idea of _someone making decisions for me without even asking my opinion!"_

Charlie looked like someone getting a present flung to his head that he has spent lots of time and consideration choosing. "But now that I explained my reasons to you, maybe you could – "

"Our ideas of a nice honeymoon are in desperate need of synchronizing," said Josy, wearily. "And for someone who's fluent in about twenty-eight modern languages you're remarkably slow at catching my meaning."

"Slow, huh?" Charlie's eyes started to flicker. "Well, I won't be slow correcting that mistake."

Suddenly, he was gone. There was no plopping sound of air filling the space where he'd sat, but Ciel certainly waited for one. Josy blinked, slowly lowering her hand that she had placed on his shoulder.

For two or three seconds, no-one spoke.

Then, Sebastian said, "I'm concerned."

"Because Charlie seemed to take it rather hard?" asked Ciel.

"No, he'll be okay." Sebastian turned his head as if expecting a sound or a signal from above. But he did not seem surprised, either, when an earthquake shook the floor.

"Sebastian?" said Josy reasonably, holding on to the bed. "What does he do?"

"Ah – you don't want to know..." Sebastian inched toward his master.

Another jolt rocked the floor. A painting crashed down, and the window shattered into a million tiny fragments. Giving a little scream, Josy made herself flat on the bed and used the crumpled sheets as a shield. Sebastian pushed Ciel down behind the bed frame and crouched beside him.

"I," said Ciel, "would very much like to know what you cousin is up to."

"I think he left the palace, turned into his true form and used his unleashed powers to enhance some volcanic activity below the island's rocky surface." Sebastian sounded like he was talking about an act as simple as reaching into a bathtub in order to pull the plug, and even added, "It's what I would've done."

"No, you wouldn't," said Charlie who was suddenly back and helping Josy up. "Need to assume your true form, I mean." He held up his ragged claws. The shiny black nails looked dull and scratched like he had treated them with sandpaper. "This island is nothing but coral and sea shells," he informed Sebastian. "Someone of your powers could reach the volcanic core merely by dealing the structure a few determined kicks with his favorite metal heels. Me, I needed to do some digging on top."

"How many hours?" asked Sebastian.

"Minutes. I sort of tore the thing apart. Went for the big show..."

"But – why destroy the whole place?" asked Josy. "Just because I said I didn't want to live here?"

"No, that's not it," said Ciel. "Sebastian says he would've done the same, and he doesn't care about your preferences, not really. But the story goes that no-one ever leaves this place for good. So, from a demon's point of view - a demon who has someone as weak as a human to protect - this island must be destroyed. Because for as long as it existed, you, I, your child, none of us could ever feel safe again."

"Hm. Neat," said Josy, slipping her hand into Charlie's. Not for the first time, Ciel wondered about her state of mind.

"Speaking about safety. I believe," said Sebastian, sneaking his hand around Ciel's shoulder, "I believe that everyone and everything mortal and unable to survive in fire or water should split the scene." A note of haste crept into his voice. "Now."

* * *

Sebastian and Charlie led the humans in the corridor that was already full of people, mostly men in outfits that reached back through time, covering the changing fashions of at least eight centuries of travelling the oceans. No one seemed to know what was going on, no one seemed to have a destination. Some of the men looked about like they had never seen the palace before, and others discovered that no-one spoke their language.

"Where do all these sailors come from?" shouted Josy over the noise.

"Why do some of them crumble to dust?" asked Ciel, pointing at a living skeleton that halted its tottering walk and, leaning against the wall, started to disintegrate. Sebastian and Charlie exchanged glances. Charlie grinned. Sebastian narrowed his eyes. He shook his head lightly. Charlie grinned more broadly. He passed his right index finger slowly between his teeth, sucking the tip with relish just like a cat remembering the taste of a mouse.

"I – may have an explanation, young master," Sebastian said.

"Will it affect us?" asked Ciel.

"Only if the sirens find out."

"They are busy." Ciel pointed at two maids of the inner circle that had leaped on to a ledge and were leaving by a window. "And so are we, when it comes down to it."

The island was breaking apart fast. They could tell by the shaking of the walls and the trembling of the floor. Columns started to crack and plaster rained from the ceiling. Sebastian reached out and saved his master from a jet of water coming in as another window broke.

Ciel coughed. "This is like the sinking of that damned ship."

"No, it's not, young master," said Sebastian calmly. "For one thing, I'm not slowed down by injury. And secondly, the water is not just above freezing point. You can last longer in it than a meagre couple of minutes."

"Hell, I don't want to have to last in it at all," said Ciel, and "If your idea is to make me swim all the way back to London, Charlie," said Josy. "Forget it. I'm pregnant."

"Huh? What's that got to do – "

Josy stopped and folded her arms, pouting.

"Sebastian?" Charlie tugged at his cousin's sleeve. "Demon huddle. Come on. We've got to think this through."

"We?", said Sebastian acidly. "You really think 'we' is the operative word here?"

"Keep your shirt on. I've already come up with a plan." Charlie manoeuvered Josy to stand in a corner. "Wait here for a minute, please, love."

At the same time, Sebastian made Ciel crouch against the wall below one of the last intact windows. "I apologize. This will take only a minute, young master."

Ciel nodded. He was used to being treated like a life-sized doll or, worse, something not entirely capable of self-preserverance if his demon thought it necessary. But Josy seemed outraged, which amused him. Charlie was really in for a hard time if his daughter inherited only half her mother's self-esteem and independence along with her father's demonic powers.

As Charlie had announced, the demons had gone into a huddle and whispered. Sebastian seemed unhappy. He looked repeatedly at Ciel and at Josy, then ducked his head again to continue conferring with his cousin. Charlie gestured lively and spoke urgently. In fact, he seemed to gain the upper hand. Ciel had learned to read demonic body language – which was not so different from humans, after all - and watching Sebastian cave in, he wondered what his butler's defeat might mean for him and Josy.

Finally, the two demons agreed on their next steps, and they came over to collect their charges.

"Young master," said Sebastian, a little awkwardly. "It seems it cannot be helped that you get a little wet, after all – "

"I already gathered as much," growled Ciel, thinking of how the ocean around a sinking island had to look like.

"Don't worry," said Charlie. "I'll see to it that you get safely to the other side."

"The other side? What are you talking - wait!" Ciel protested as Charlie grabbed him around the waist. Bewildered, the earl watched his own demon walk over to Josy. "Sebastian!_ The other side?!_ What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I must ask you to trust me, young master," said Sebastian. "There are certain instructions to be given if Miss Josy and her child are to survive this catastrophe unharmed." He flashed Charlie a mean look, while Ciel noted with relief that the demon still talked about 'survival'. "You will agree that as a tutor I am far more proficient and experienced than my cousin. Charlie, on the other hand, promised to get you through this alive." _('Alive!' Hooray!) "_So, it made sense to switch charges this one time..."

"Switch _what_?" Unable to believe what he had just heard, Ciel looked up at the demon that was holding him. Charlie met his gaze, eyes glowing conveniently reddish and not very excited at all.

"Hey, Ciel," he said, airily. "I told you I'm true to my word. Remember our conversation in Alba's shack?"

"Charlie," said Josy. "We're running out of time. Sebastian and I are off."

"Okay, baby. Love you."

"Love you too, bastard. See you, Earl Phantomhive."

"Mylord." Sebastian bowed politely, even as he stepped backwards on the edge of Ramón's pond.

Suddenly feeling very cold and very scared, Ciel struggled against the unfamiliar claws around his body. "Sebastian! You can't just – I order you – " Charlie's other hand clapped over his mouth, and the order was never spoken aloud.

"_Shhh_," the demon said friendly. "We don't want him to feel trapped between conflicting loyalties when my two girls are involved." He looked at Ciel, smiling, and this time, the young earl shrank back from eyes that gleamed so visciously and violently red they almost looked orange.

Ciel remembered that Charlie had told him not to make a mistake.

_You are the prey._

Now, he felt he had been promoted a pawn in Charlie's game.

_'Alive' - don't make me laugh! Never deal with a demon you haven't made a contract with... he will break your neck and think about the consequences later..._

Ciel shook his head as well he could to indicate that he no longer intended to interfere with the general allocation of tasks. So, Charlie would take him 'to the other side', and Sebastian took care of Josy. _Fine._ Ciel clung to the thought that there were reasons he simply did not know, but would have accepted. Otherwise, Sebastian would never have agreed to _this_. Yes, that had to be it. Good reasons, but without the time to explain in a comprehensible way.

Yet, Ciel couldn't help experiencing a small surge of fear and even jealousy as he watched his butler fasten his grip on the girl. Josy wrapped her arms about Sebastian's neck (_gosh_, Ciel _knew_ how that felt and in an emergency like that!) and casting Charlie one last glance, she was carried over the edge and into the water.

Charlie removed his hand from Ciel's mouth.

Ciel saw no point in shouting at the demon now. He only wished he could trust him like he trusted Sebastian.

"At least tell me what your plan's about," he gasped.

"Sure," said Charlie, jovially as if he had not just gone through a scary transformation, man to monster and back again. "We'll go through Ramón's pond. When Sebastian had it drained to check for your corpse, I noticed something like a big plug hole. It's actually quite obvious that Ramón would need an exit to get out and do his kidnapping of ships and people. But since it's pandaemonium out there, we figured the safest way to get Josy and you out was by diving." Talking, Charlie followed Sebastian's example and stepped on the edge of the pond. "I recommend that you take a deep breath, then hold your nose."

"Wait," said Ciel, nervously, remembering something he had picked up during their very first encounter, some months ago. "I thought I heard you state that you can't swim!"

"That's right," said Charlie airily. "Never figured it out." A tentacle curled over his shoulder. "That's why Ramón's a crucial part of the plan. Don't worry about what he does to me, cubby. He bears you no grudge, that's the important thing."

Ciel tried not to panic, "But – Charlie – he – he sort of does!"

Charlie frowned, "How so?"

Ciel spilled out the words, "There was my family ring among his treasures. I took it, and he got really upset. My reason for scrambling out the window, in the first place..."

Charlie looked grieved, with an army of slippery tentacles curling about his form. He lifted one up to free his mouth and said, "Oh. You didn't tell Sebastian, did you?"

"What am I going to do?" screamed Ciel, feeling Ramón's tentacles start to slide all over his body.

"Take a _real deep breath_."

* * *

+++End of Chapter 7+++


	8. A Job Well-done

Hi, everybody. I'm back, and this chapter ist really long. It concludes the story. You've been waiting long enough for the final "Completed" setting, and already I thank you for coming back and finishing this with me. Last time we stopped, the island was breaking apart, and the demons had swapped charges in order to leave by a rather unconventional exit...

Disclaimer: I do not own "Kuroshitsuji", I hold no rights to the characters (Ciel, Sebastian et al.), and I do not make money out of this.

* * *

+++Chapter 8: A Job Well-Done+++

Sebastian found his way through the dark waters beneath Ramón's pool almost effortlessly. The giant squid entered and left the palace through a long tunnel in the rocks that were the foundation of the island, and the small speck of light at the far end was enough for the demon to know where he needed to head to. The human girl in his arm was uncomplicated to drag along, since Josy was a good swimmer herself and not afraid of the water surrounding her. She simply hung in, holding her breath and clinging to the dark form close to her. Sebastian sighed inwardly: Charlie would have more of a struggle with the young master. And as to the young master's reaction to this ordeal... But that was part of the plan and no way to change it at this point.

The light was just in front of and slightly above their heads now, and next moment they broke through the surface of the troubled water.

Sebastian looked around quickly: This was even worse than he had expected. They were at the foot of high cliffs, and only his demon strength and skill kept them from being shattered against the rocks. Due to Charlie's manipulations, the island was in the process of breaking apart. Fountains of fire shot from cracks in the surface. Ash and fragments of stone rained on to the waves. The ocean was in wild turmoil. It would be difficult to keep the humans alive under these circumstances.

Looking at Josy, Sebastian met her worried eyes. Thankfully, she was not in panic, but scared. Well, who would not be with hell breaking loose about their mortal head?

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" she screamed.

"You don't have to scream," Sebastian deliberately allowed the demonic cadence into his voice. It sliced through the noise of crashing waves and erupting volcanoes. "As long as we don't get separated I can get you out of here. Just hold on to me."

Josy's arms tightened around his neck.

"What would you teach me that Charlie couldn't?" she asked. "That's why you're here with me, and not him, isn't it? You two agreed that there was something you needed to show or teach me to get my baby and me through this."

"You need to make a contract with her," said Sebastian.

For two or three moments of surprise, she stopped treading water, "_A contract?!_"

"Charlie's never made one. Therefore he felt not entirely up to the task of teaching a young one how to do it."

"Teach her? But - " Josy stopped and made a flourishing movement with her hand. "Alright. How does it work?"

They had found a way of floating together, with Sebastian reclining in the water and Josy resting her weight on his body and leaning on his shoulders to keep her head up. Water lapped around Sebastian's face, washing over it at irregular intervals. But the inconvenience did not bother him too much as he explained, "Any contract requires two parties. There are conditions on which both parties need to agree. For any contract to be valid, that's a basic rule. No exceptions." He wiped water from his eyes and met Josy's gaze: She was listening intently. "Step one: The human summons the demon. Step two: The demon appears - "

"Hold it," said Josy. "Let's get one thing straight: I didn't _summon_ Charlie. And he didn't _appear_. He was just another guest, sitting at the bar when I started my shift."

Sebastian was in no mood to argue over trifles, "Alright. I'll rephrase that. Step one: The human looks like fun. Step two: The demon closes in - "

"Step three: The human gets pregnant."

"_Miss Josy -_ "

"Sorry. Tell me about step three."

"If you could ask something of your daughter what would it be?" For a moment, they were both submerged. Josy could feel her demonic companion kick water in order not to be thrown against the cliff. Realizing that he was struggling, she felt a little scared for the first time. When she came up again, salt water streaming down her face, she had her answer ready:

"I want my baby to live," she spluttered. "If I had a say in this, I'd ask her – no, I'd order her to survive." She gave Sebastian a calculating look, "In London," she specified. "Both of us. In the physical. Safe and sound."

The demon frowned, "Excuse me, but that's not me you're making this deal with."

"No. But you're all that's keeping me alive right now. So I had better lay down some rules."

"Rules. Is that how you manage to get along with my cousin?" asked Sebastian a little irritably.

"For the most part, I try not to get caught in a situation where his commitment is all that's keeping me alive."

"You don't trust him to protect you?" Sebastian asked, perplexed.

Josy gave him a surprised look, "Hell, no! He's a demon."

"Miss Josy?"

"What?"

"...nothing." Sebastian sighed, then continued, "Now, to determine the other side of the bargain: If your daughter lives, what will you give her?"

That seemed to sway Josy for a moment, "Give? I don't have anything to – Love? Does it count if I promise to give her love?"

"We can make it count," Sebastian promised. "Name her."

"But I wanted Charlie to decide - "

"He can't name her," Sebastian said, urgently. With all that hot ash and volcanic stuff plunging in and cracks opening below, the water was getting heated up by the second. Besides, these cliffs and their constant, strong undertow were really starting to be an energy-sapping nuisance. "That's the part of the contract that lies with the mortal. Don't ask me why. It's just not the same."

"Chastity," said Josy.

Sebastian stared at her, "W- what?"

"I've decided on a name for my daughter: Chastity. Well? What's next?"

For a moment, they floated in silence. Then, Sebastian sighed. "Oh, alright. Charlie is going to kill me for not even trying to talk you out of it, but - Now, _Chastity_, you've probably never made a contract before, and this is only a crash course. But here's what you must do - "

Floating, fighting against the bone-crushing force of the waves while clutching Josy to his body, Sebastian tried to teach Chastity all she needed to know to make the contract that would safe her young demonic life.

* * *

The trip to the surface was a cold, dark nightmare of suffocation. Ciel could feel the rush of water as the giant squid dragged him through what had to be a rock tunnel below sea-level. At first, his lungs felt as if they were going to burst. Now they burnt like fire. He held his nose, fighting the respiratory reflexes. He knew fully well that to inhale the water would mean his death, no matter the demons' promises or intentions.

There was no way of knowing whether Charlie was there at all. Back in the palace, Ramón had taken hold of them both, and sure enough the squid waved the demon around a bit. But Ciel, he had merely held up in front of his vicious red eyes and squinted at the boy as if thinking about how to give him a good shaving with a barnacle shell.

And then, Djoo had slipped out of Ciel's sleeve and moved to settle on his shoulder. Ramón couldn't blink his eyes, but he certainly gave an impression of surprise. A huge tentacle curled towards Ciel and touched its tip to a tiny, translucent pseudopodia. Djoo wiggled. Ramón gave a low, reverberating hum that added an additional tremor to the already shaking floor.

"Hey, Charlie! They know each other," said Ciel, bewildered.

"You know, sometimes you're really naive, cubby," said Charlie. He was attached upside down to a column into which Ramón had whacked him, and holding on with his claws for dear life. Ramón still pulled him off his precarious hold, the strong fingernails leaving deep marks in the marble. Charlie's angry scream of protest and a loud splashing noise was the last thing Ciel heard before he was under water, too.

Then, the crazy journey had begun.

Concentrating on the memory had gained Ciel a few precious seconds. But now he could not fight the need for air any longer. As desperate as his mind struggled to control the body, still his mouth opened and sucked in the cold water that would fill his lungs and drown him.

Only he couldn't suck it in.

There was something stuck in his windpipe, blocking it completely. As his consciousness slipped away, Ciel felt vexed that he was not even allowed to drown himself, now that he had resolved himself to his course... Something wriggled and tickled in his sinuses, mocking him...

He sneezed.

"Hi cubby," a well-known voice said close to his ear. He opened his eyes and met Charlie's red eyes very close to his own. "It's good you started breathing again. I already figured I'd have to give you the kiss of live."

Ciel shook his head feebly and tried to orientate himself: They were still in the water, there could be no doubt about that. There were waves hitting him and the roar of storm, things falling all around them – but he was remarkably steady, apparently sitting on Charlie's arm. The demon was relatively steady, too. How could that be? He should at least be treading water to keep them from sinking. But Charlie had claimed he couldn't swim, so -

"How'd you do that?" asked Ciel.

"Do what?" asked Charlie distractedly, looking the other way. Ciel realized that Charlie was not drifting at all. His feet were supported by something solid that allowed his head and shoulders to keep clear of the water.

"That's Ramón you're standing on, right?" Ciel said as casual as he could.

"Sure. What else? You think I got a floating rock up my sleeve?"

"No. That place is occupied by Djoo." Ciel stared at the little creature that wobbled on the demon's shoulder. "Charlie? I think it – he just saved my life. Crawled up my nose and prevented me from breathing water."

"Mmmh-yeah. That little bugger nearly ruined everything." Charlie quarter-turned as if he were searching the horizon for something to appear.

"Ruined? I could've died. I almost did." Even as he complained, something told Ciel that that was very true. The date of his death had hastily been added on top of some shinigami's list.

"And a remarkably good job you made of it," Charlie said. "Here they are."

As he followed the demon's pointing finger, Ciel realised two things:

Firstly, the demons didn't give a damn for 'almost died'. From Charlie's and even Sebastian's point of view, the same fact was dubbed 'still alive', meaning that promises and contracts were dutifully kept.

Secondly - there were two shinigami coming their way now, riding the waves on curious vehicles. They looked like one-person boats, but without sails, bulwarks, oars, or any other part that boats should rightfully have. Actually, they were hardly more than a comfortable looking seat on a sleek, roughly dolphin-shaped body with a handlebar for steering wheels. The left one was painted in trendy colors, brilliant blue and green with black racing stripes on the hood. It was steered by the young shinigami that had obviously survived his remarkable run-in with Charlie and Sebastian on the sailing ship.

The other watercraft was painted black with two white stripes on the hood. Its rider got slowly to his feet, balancing easily with his death scythe, an extractable gardener's tongs, in his right hand. He used it to pushed up his glasses.

"Honestly," he said, his voice cold like ice despite the chaos around him. "Didn't you say the vermin was dead and ready for collection?"

"I did, sir," the young shinigami said, his voice tiny and shaking. "I – I mean, I could tell the other demon used my death scythe on him. He ought to be dead. He _must be_ dead."

William T. Spears turned a page in his book, "As is this person. Earl Ciel Phantomhive. His name has been added on my list only recently."

"Well, _surprise_," said Charlie. "Sebastian and I weren't sure if you'd come for me. But we figured at least one of you guys was bound to show up if the boy's name appeared on your to-do list. And since you can't walk on water, you'd bring something floatable." He gave the shinigami a really dirty smirk, then rested his greedy eyes on the vehicles. "I like these fancy things you're riding," he said. "_You got it. I want it._ Get off, and get lost."

"Honestly." William T. Spears pushed up his glasses again. "After all that happened here today, you have no right to be alive and take shinigami property."

"No right? Maybe," Charlie said, his grin widening to truly maniac dimensions. "But I've got a squid."

Behind the shinigami, tentacles rose out of the water and towered threateningly over their heads. Spears and his colleague turned, and at that moment of distraction Charlie launched himself from Ramón's back and went for the young shinigami like a fistful of iron spikes flung at a strong magnet.

"Sebastian once said," said Ciel, watching black claws dig into the shinigami's ribcage.

"One mustn't kill a shinigami," said Ciel, watching shiny teeth slash at the shinigami's throat.

"They're some kind of gods, and there's sort of a curse if you slaughter them deliberately," Ciel said, thus stopping Charlie in the act of folding the shinigami neatly up into a bundle suitable for carrying away in a document case.

"Alright?" Ciel asked coolly.

"He's still alive," said Charlie, breathing heavily. But he let go of the young shinigami's neck. Gasping, the youth slumped on the driver's seat. Ciel pushed him off the vehicle and sat down.

"Er..." said Charlie, lifting his finger as if he meant to make some point, but dropped it again.

"He was in my way, and he's not dead," Ciel simply said, closing his hands around the handlebar and treading on the hand that reached out of the water and tried to grab hold of the vehicle's edge. "Hm. Maybe now."

Spears only managed to say, "Honestly, you cannot - ", before he, too, was swept off his vehicle by a waving tentacle.

"That's your problem, you know," Ciel said to him. "After all this time you still expect there to be rules. Which is quite amazing, considering your experience with demons. You should know that they would snatch away any soul faster than you could file an official complaint, right?" Ciel watched the shinigami fight a losing battle against the Beast of the Last Days, then turned to the demon, "Charlie? What do we do now?"

"Now you call Sebastian through your contract."

Ciel lifted his eye-patch. "Sebastian? I am here. Come – _oops_." He clung to the handlebar as the vehicle swayed with the sudden arrival of more weight. Faster than anything save, maybe, lightning, indeed. "You mean to throw me off? Go gentler next time."

"I will remember it, young master," said Sebastian politely. "Stop crowding on me, Charlie. Ah. I see we have two vehicles at our disposal. Why don't you leap over and - "

"In a second." Charlie held on to Sebastian's shoulders and tried to creep around him, to get a look at the girl, "How's Josy?"

"I'm fine," said Josy. She had her arms around Sebastian's neck and dangled her feet like a young girl having fun. "A little woozy, but fine."

"A little woozy? Honey, you're supposed to be dizzy and sick. Something about acceleration that human bodies find it hard to take."

"Well, I could really take to it. In fact, I'd like to go again, can we, please, Sebastian?"

"_No_," said Charlie, and, "No," said Ciel, meeting his butler's questioning look.

"Alright, _alright._" Josy squinted, "Are these two shinigami that Ramón is playing with?"

Charlie and Sebastian exchanged looks, "Er, yes..."

"Then I think we _should_ do it again, and go _very fast_," Josy said. "All of us. Before Ramón tires of his game, and they are back to get us."

* * *

The demons had no trouble figuring out how to work the strange vehicles that were capable of riding the waves at dizzying speed, leaving a silver wake. As they went along, gradually moving out of sight of the sinking island, of Ramón and the two unhappy shinigami, their skill and speed grew.

So did Ciel's nauseated feeling.

He wished the demons wouldn't go so fast. He wished, the vehicle would go evenly, not in this eternal skipping-soaring-plunging movement. He tried to breathe deeply, but the air that hit his face was cold and full of water. Ciel pressed against Sebastian's chest and felt the comfort of his butler's arm safely around him. Sebastian had been right: There was something about acceleration that a human body didn't tolerate too well.

Or make that _his body_ –

Beside him, Josy was screaming with joy. She was no longer cradled in Charlie's arm but sat behind him, _very close behind him_ and with her arms firmly around his waist. Charlie was doing little acrobatics, rotating their vehicle in mid-air and deliberately trying to get them sprayed at touch down.

"I am deeply grieved the young master is not enjoying this ride," said Sebastian. His brown eyes rested somehow knowingly on Ciel.

"What is there to enjoy?" snapped Ciel. "Don't tell me you regret not being allowed to behave in a silly way like you cousin and his fiancée."

"Very well," said Sebastian, taking it as an order, and fell silent.

"_Scream if you wanna be upside down,_" shouted Charlie some thirty yards ahead.

Josy's answering yell nearly split Ciel's eardrums.

He watched their vehicle hit a wave full speed and got straight up in the air where it turned over and slammed back on the waves. Even louder than the splashing sound of the impact was the girl's exultant cheering.

"She's insane, Sebastian, isn't she?" said Ciel, thoughtfully.

"Because she's enjoying herself?"

"That's not what I mean. I'm talking about her state of mind in general. She's got these moments when she, I don't know, she seems to fall asleep and regard everything about her like she believes it's a dream."

"Don't you, young master?" asked Sebastian. "Catch yourself sitting in the sunshine some times, blinking away the past three years? Wondering if there's really a demon, living in your household. Or if, maybe, Tanaka will show up soon, serving tea - "

Ciel swallowed dryly.

"Denial is a strong trait in humans," Sebastian went on, and turned his eyes to the horizon. "Especially the denial of memories and desires one does not want to admit to himself..." He cast the young master a quick glance from the corner of his eyes.

"Save your breath. I know you too well," growled Ciel. "I know what you're doing."

Perfect innocence in the demon's voice, "Doing, young master?"

"Sebastian," said Ciel, grabbing his demon harder. "This is an order - "

He watched the smile creep on the pale face: Sebastian, too, knew his master well.

"I couldn't feel any sicker than I already do. I am stuck with a demon also, and I want to know what's there to enjoy about it. I want to be upside down at full speed. _Now,_ Sebastian."

The demon let him slide down on the seat to grab the handlebar with both hands, "Yes, mylord."

* * *

Late at night the storm had cleared away, and the stars were shining on the dark sea. Sebastian and Charlie had slowed down and were cruising side by side, at a steady pace. Ciel was asleep in Sebastian's arm, physically tired and emotionally worn out by the mixture of mortal fear and the thrill of their ride on the waves. The dignified earl would not scream out like the girl, no matter what. But he definitely enjoyed himself, which in turn gave his butler the sense of a job well-done.

Josy leaned against Charlie's back, dozing.

"She really named our daughter Chastity?" Charlie asked for what felt like the thousandth time. "But that's not a name for a demon, for Chri– for crying out loud."

"Well, who am I to judge," said Sebastian. "I got named after the young master's dog. I keep trying to make myself believe that he chose that name because of that animal's positive character traits, but - "

"Yes?" said Charlie, when Sebastian would not go on. "Your results? I could really use some advise here, you know."

Sebastian shrugged, "I always wind up with the realization that I don't believe in positive character traits. I really don't."

Charlie turned to look at the sleeping girl, "Do you think she regrets engaging in a relationship with me?"

"Dear me, that's a hard one to answer," said Sebastian, dripping sarcasm. "You want my honest opinion, don't you?"

"Don't trouble yourself with finding sympathetic words. I know she does." Charlie looked up at the stars, "Sometimes, I wonder if I should feel guilty about it..."

Josy moved in his back and mumbled, "Shut up, twit."

"Josy-love," said Charlie patiently, in English. "You couldn't possibly know what I said. You don't speak medieval Gaelic."

"I don't have to. I can tell by the sound of your voice when you're being stupid." Josy straightened up and blinked at his towering shape. "And turn back into your human form. You know how I hate waking up and looking at this – _shadow-red-eyes-feather-thing_ you become when you're careless. Are you going to steer into that boat in front of us or go around it?"

"That boat," said Charlie, having obediently donned his human looks, "is the reason why we changed into our true forms. That way we could follow the scent more easily. Hi, Elfin. Hello, Alba. How are you?"

"Drifting in a boat, somewhere in the vastness of the ocean," said Elfin, non-commitally. "How about you?"

"You looked different last time we parted," said Charlie. "More color. Less wrinkles."

The white-haired, withered old man in the stern smiled. "Only few of us were spared, I guess. When the island perished, the magic could not prevail. Time flowed back in like the tide, to claim what it had been denied and robbed of before. Everyone aged according to the span of his stay in Lady Aglaia's realm. But I can see that you four are alright. Of course you are. You've been there only for a few days."

"Going home now." Charlie leaned down from his vehicle. "I just wanted to return Djoo. He'll be happier with you than in some goldfish bowl which is all we could offer him now."

Alba reached out and took Djoo on her hand. "Thanks."

"We're going back to London," said Josy. "I have no idea where it is, or when we get there, but - is there something we can do for you?"

"Time and directions is not something you need to worry about when you're traveling with demons," said Alba. "Thank you, child. But I'm a siren. The sea is my home. My love and I, we will find some shore to settle."

"If her sisters will allow us to do so," said Elfin. "Last time we saw them, they fluttered about like a flock of scared pidgeons. We have seen no trace of Lady Aglaia, however..."

"Don't worry," Charlie said airily. "She'll never bother you again."

"Because her island is gone, you mean? I'm not sure if that's really sufficient." Elfin could not quite place the demon's smirk. Sebastian, on the other hand, read it like a book.

"I... don't think my cousin was talking about the island," he said. "Charlie, you and your gluttony are really beyond hope and redemption, you know that?"

"Yes, but at least I'm not starving like you," said Charlie, sounding like a satisfied tomcat.

"Wait a minute," said Josy. "Are you saying that you blew up Aglaia's island, then strolled into her chambers to _devour her soul_?"

"Actually, I broke into her chambers and devoured her soul, and then I went and blew up the island. It was easier this way round. She could be a real bitch. Sebastian, remember the scene she made just because you and I took that ship apart that was parked in her front yard?"

"I remember," said Sebastian, who didn't really care whose soul his cousin devoured as long as it was not that of his young master. However, he was curious for Josy's response.

Josy was not horrified.

She was not scared.

She guffawed and said with an air of satisfaction, "I wish I could've seen the look on her face."

"That's my girl." Charlie cast Sebastian a look. "Unfortunately, my girl is human, and - "

"I offered my help, but you refused," said Sebastian, impatiently. "Now, hurry up, will y- "

Josy never saw the blow coming that made her collapse in Charlie's arms, "Sorry, love," he told her, "But for all your passion for speed you really wouldn't enjoy what we're about to do to get you to London _tonight_."

Sebastian looked at his silver watch. "I plan on having fresh muffins for the young master for breakfast. Let's get a move on, Charlie."

"For your fresh muffins?" Charlie grinned. "Anytime."

* * *

Ciel awoke to the smell of warm cake, the noise of Bard and Mairin shouting at each other, and a good deal of sunlight on his face. Which was curious, since his bedroom window was not usually hit fully by the early morning sun; trees on the premises hindered that.

"I've had the most peculiar dream," he mumbled, turning to his left.

Sebastian answered from his right. "I wonder, young master."

"Your cousin Charlie was there, and that barmaid, Josy," Ciel began, wondering why Sebastian was on the wrong side of the bed, and what Mairin had possibly done to get Bard so angry. "They were about to marry, but we were taken to that island and - " Ciel started as the door was thrust open, "Charlie!"

"Hi, cubby," said Charlie distracted. "Josy's up. Could you come over, like, real quick?"

He was clearly not addressing Ciel. And this was not Phantomhive mansion but a bedroom somewhere in the London East End. Ciel could tell by the smell of the docks drifting in and the general state of the rotting wood and the decaying walls.

Sebastian, who was in the process of offering Ciel a tray with muffins, gave his master a look.

"Alright," said Ciel, not quite sure what he was giving his permission for, "go with him."

He moved to the edge of the bed and reached with his toes for a pair of slippers that waited for him. The continuing fight next door proved that they were back in the East End, indeed. Ciel, who remembered most of his past adventure now, had no idea of how or when they had got here. But he suspected that the demons had eventually worked a little magic of their own, once their human burdens had fallen asleep. Something to the effect of shrinking the distance ahead or altering the passage of time in their favor – something like that.

_Something, the human mind was even less made to process or endure than sudden acceleration._

Josy sat on the sofa in the adjoining room, still wearing her ragged wedding dress. She looked fine, albeit a little pale and worried.

"Hi, Sebastian," she said, both hands protectively on her belly. "Charlie said there was a problem he needed you to fix."

"Not a big problem," Sebastian said. "It's just that we had to cover quite a distance last night. Chastity may have lost track. She's too young and inexperienced to hold on during this kind of traveling."

"You mean traveling at such high speed?" asked Ciel.

"Traveling as we did last night," said Sebastian evasively. "It would've been hard for a grown-up human to experience it and arrive in his sound mind. Of course, we could... take care of you and Miss Josy. But we couldn't stop that little demon mind within her from reaching outward and sensing what was going on. At some point, Chastity decided to get off the ride that was becoming too confusing and too scary."

"You mean she's gone?" asked Ciel, when Josy merely listened with the same wide-eyed attention she usually showed when she was being told something that appeared to be very bad news indeed but could yet turn out just fine, once the demons cared to explain.

Sebastian, reliably, did not let her down: "Merely disconnected from her body, and probably scared and looking for it," he said. "It's something every demon has to learn. But that's just the reason why you two made that contract, Miss Josy. I want you to call her."

"Call her?" asked Josy. "You mean by her name?"

Sebastian smiled. "She's bound to you by contract. She'll know where you are and come at your bidding."

Josy seemed to catch his meaning, even though she didn't really trust in its practicability now.

"Chastity?" she asked. "Can you hear me? It's your mum calling you. Come to me, love."

"Tell her you order her," said Ciel impulsively.

Josy drew herself up and put more authority in her voice, "Very well. I order you, Chastity: Come here to me! Now!"

A single candle whiffed out. Ciel felt that something small and insubstantial like an invisible swallow had zipped past. Maybe it even chirped happily as it obediently repossessed the unfinished vessel for its infant spirit and mind.

Sebastian and Charlie watched tensely. As Josy's eyes began to gleam, their drawn faces relaxed. But not into smiles, not yet.

"Now, have we learned a little lesson, young one," said Charlie sternly.

"Charlie," said Sebastian. "She can't see your raised finger, nor does she know what it means."

"It means 'Never, ever let go of your physical existence without making sure you have another ready to infest.' "

"Pearl of wisdom," mumbled Sebastian.

"Will you shut up when I'm scolding my daughter?!"

"I'm only saying you're one to talk. Besides, that's not yet your daughter you're waving your parental finger at. That's your pregnant girlfriend, and she's confused because she doesn't understand German."

"Oh. _Entschuldigung, Liebling._"

"_Scherzkeks._ - Go on and hold her."

Charlie went and held Josy - and more than that. Watching them kiss passionately and at length, it dawned on Ciel how the girl had gotten so proficient at holding her breath in the first place. He crabbed sideways until he stood beside his butler.

"So Josy and her unborn daughter have a contract," he said softly to Sebastian. "The wish and the will were there, no doubt. But what about the mark? The sacrifice?"

Sebastian winked an eye at him. "Shh. That's for advanced users."

The quarreling voices next door reached a new crescendo.

"Got to have a word with them." Gently, Charlie disentangled himself from Josy. "This noise got to stop if we're going to raise a happy little family here."

He went out the door.

The shouting stopped abruptly.

Charlie came back in.

"Done," he said.

"Done? Done what?" asked Sebastian. "Hell, Charlie, when will you get it into your big head that you can't simply go around killing people. Not if you really mean to live among them, that is."

"But I didn't kill them," said Charlie, red eyes sparkling.

"Then what did you do?"

"I walked in and told them that we're busy conducting an invocation ritual over here and really bad things might happen to them, so could we please have more quiet."

"Bad things?" Sebastian sounded tired, "Worse than a shadow-creature, red-eyed-and-fanged-demon showing up in the middle of their floor and making that announcement?"

"Exactly." Charlie grinned, running his tongue over his teeth, "Much worse."

Sebastian shook his head, exasperated.

"For heaven's sake, Josy," Ciel made a sweeping movement and pointed accusingly at the gloating demon. "Collar him already."

"Don't worry." Josy smiled grimly and held out her hand for Charlie to take. "I will."

* * *

A warm, sunny day, six weeks later...

A group of humans had gathered on a sailing ship to witness Charlie and Josy take the Holy Vows of matrimony.

So far, everything had gone according to plan. The guests had embarked, the captain started his speech. The couple was standing at the altar, hand in hand. Josy's condition was beginning to show, and she beamed with happiness as her financée was radiating anxiety like a bridled racing horse.

Ciel and his butler sat on a rough wooden bench. They each looked about restlessly, suffering from the mild feeling of paranoia that Ciel had learned came naturally when Charlie was involved.

In front of the crowd, Charlie produced a ring and prepared to put it on Josy's finger. Smiling, she held out her hand to him.

"Young master," whispered Sebastian. "Looks like this time they're really going to make it."

"Are you kidding? This is _Charlie's wedding_," said Ciel. As if on cue, the ship received a heavy blow and shook. Charlie almost dropped the golden ring and Josy staggered, nearly thrown off-balance by the tilting of the deck.

"A whale," said a man, who was seated next to the gunwale. Moments later, a large gray bulk rose from behind the rail. A great fountain of water was blown up, spaying the gathering, causing people to scream and flee. Little black eyes stared maliciously, scanning the crowd, searching...

"Behemoth," said Sebastian silently. "One of the Beasts of the Apocalypse. I didn't know Charlie had crossed him, too."

Ciel pointed ahead. "Watch."

In front of the altar, Charlie and Josy could be seen debating and gesturing wildly. Their voices were drowned out by the noise.

Suddenly, Josy took a determined step forward and clutched her financée by the shoulders. Her eyes had begun to gleam in demonic light. Lifting the resisting demon off his feet, she carried him to the rail and flung him overboard. The monstrous whale's mouth gaped all the more eagerly to receive him.

No-one but two guests had really noticed.

Those two guests stood up, getting ready to leave. There would be no taking of vows today.

"Some brat, your niece," said Ciel, as he touched the rim of his top hat, checking its position on his head. "Josy could never have lifted Charlie off his feet like that if it hadn't been for some supernatural help."

"A vicious little beast to the core." Sebastian agreed. He looked over to where his cousin was fighting a desperate battle against the monster. "It runs in the family."

"Well, are you going to help him out, or will little Chastity be orphaned before she's even born?" asked Ciel, impatiently. "I don't think this monster is going to leave much of a body for her father to repossess."

Sebastian produced his silver watch and made a point of flipping open the lid. "Let's give him three minutes to cope with this on his own, shall we, young master?"

"Get me some of the wedding cake." Ciel settled back on the bench. "Then you may do with your cousin whatever you deem suitable." He produced a piece of broken, bloodied, jagged bamboo. "Whatever you choose to do, you may be needing this."

"Thank you, young master." Sebastian accepted the sad remnants of the young shinigami's death scythe, the only weapon that could destroy humans, demons and demonic creatures alike. "I will make good use of it."

As Ciel leaned back to watch, his evil smile matched even that of a demon, "Wolves of a pack, Sebastian - I'm sure you will."

+++ The End+++

* * *

A/N: So, it's finished. Did anyone still believe this day would come? A special "thank you" to all my patient readers. I hope I lived up to your expectations. I may not write about Charlie and Josy again (though I really grew fond of them), but I'm quite sure that Ciel has not seen the last of them. Maybe they'll make him babysit on Chastity, and everyone freaks out over her being so cute, while she crawls around, a happy, little, red-eyed brat looking for exciting new ways to test her powers :)


End file.
